


The High School of the Lost

by KaleyMarie



Series: The High School of the Lost [1]
Category: Descendants (2015), The Isle of the Lost - Melissa de la Cruz
Genre: Alternate Universe - High School, Alternate Universe - High School Musical, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, F/M, High School Musical AU, M/M, and that might bother some people, and then there's also hints at child abuse with Cruella and carlos, hsm au, it's only rated teen and up because they eventually kiss and stuff, jarlos - Freeform, jaylos
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-09-28
Updated: 2015-11-19
Packaged: 2018-04-23 20:23:38
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 12
Words: 25,696
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4890865
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/KaleyMarie/pseuds/KaleyMarie
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Jay Williams and Carlos De Vil meet each other on New Year's during winter break. Jay is a popular tourney player, and Carlos is a mini Einstein. Can they be together throughout the pressure from their peers?<br/>AKA: The HSM AU that no one really asked for.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. The Start of Something New

**Author's Note:**

> So in case it's not that obvious, the title is a mash up of The Isle of the Lost and High School Musical... because I'm a loser who wanted a mashed up title! :)
> 
> Disclaimer: I do not own any of these characters (obviously).

The air was electrifying.

Everyone was talking about different festivities that they would be attending that night, excited to make it through another year. Adults were dressed up in their fanciest clothes, teenagers were being ushered into one place by their parents, and most of the younger children were already in bed by now. But there was one hotel guest that decided that curling up in front of the fire in the main lobby was better than any party he could attend.

Carlos de Vil, a 15 year old with a (some would call strange) love for science, was just getting to the best part of his book when he felt it getting yanked out of his hands.

“Carlos, it’s New Year’s Eve! Enough reading,” Carlos looked up to see his mother, Cruella, standing above him with his book in her hands.

“Oh, but Mom! I’m almost done…” Carlos pleaded, already knowing that when his mother had that look in her eyes it was nearly impossible to argue with her.

Cruella scowled and said, “The teen party? You’re going whether you like it or not… for once I’d like to begin the New Year in peace.”

Cruella had started to walk away when her son meekly asked, “Can I please have my book back?”

Cruella glowers as she holds the book farther from Carlos’ reach, “First you are to get dressed, then we can see if you deserve to get it back.”

Carlos nods his head and murmurs, “Alright…”

“Carlos! Come!” Cruella calls, as Carlos hurriedly follows her to their room.

 

* * *

 

Jay has used the lodge’s gym to practice tourney every single day of his vacation, and today was no different.

He’s in one of the gyms that the lodge provides, practicing with his father, Jafar. Jay’s hair is tied back in a ponytail, his breathing coming quickly as he moves around his father to get a clear shot at the net. He swings and the ball sails to the center, Jay already moving away from the net so that his father could run through another play with him.

“Keep working left, Jay. Got a guard in the championship game we’re expectin’. You’ll torch em!” Jafar says.

Jay’s back is to his father as he asks, “By going left?”

Jafar nods as he replies, “Yeah. He goes middle, you take it _downtown_.”

Jay smirks as he asks, “Okay, like this?” Jay turns around, goes left, and takes the shot. They see the ball graze the side of the net, but not enough for him to miss it.

“Whoo! That’s it man!” Jafar says, “Sweet! I wanna see that in the game!”

Meanwhile Amara had been watching her husband and son as she waited for them to notice her. After a couple minutes she knew that they were too lost in the game and called out, “Boys?”

Jay replied to Jafar and chuckled, “Oh, you’ll see that in the game, don’t worry about me.” Jay walked over to take a drink of water and smiled at his mother, “Hey mom, you look especially beautiful this evening.”

Amara was having none of it, “Did we really fly all this way to play _more_ tourney?”

Jay looks at his father as his father looks at him; they both nod and turn back to Amara as they say, “Yeah.”

“It’s the last night of vacation,” Amara says as she turns around, showing off a very fancy emerald green dress, “The party, _remember_?”

Jafar makes a facial expression that Jay recognizes; it’s the face he makes when he forgets about something and is desperately trying to pretend that he didn’t. Tonight the something he forgot being the party that Jay’s mom was talking about.

“Right, the party. The party. New Year’s Eve.” Jafar rambles as he looks from his wife to his son.

Amara smirks at Jafar, knowing that he forgot, and turns to her son to say, “Jay, they have a kid’s party downstairs in the Freestyle club.”

Jay groans as he says, “ _Kid’s_ party?”

Amara shushes him as she says, “Young adults. Now _go_ , shower up!”

Jay gives his mom a pleading look as he backs up onto the court and says, “Come on, one more.”

Amara sighs, holding back a smile.

“Last one,” Jay continues.

“Real quick!” Jafar says, and Amara relents as she backs up off of the court.

Jay takes the ball and goes left, exactly as before, and this time the ball doesn’t even touch a side as it hits the back of the net.

“There we go!” Jafar said as he clapped Jay on the back, “That’s the way to end it!”

 

* * *

 

By the time Jay steps through the doors to the Freestyle club, the party is already in full swing. Teenagers had packed in and filled the place to a nice amount, not too many so you couldn’t breathe or move, but enough that you didn’t feel like the center of attention if you weren’t talking to anybody. Jay walks around the room casually, taking in all of the decorations as he hums along to a song that’s playing. He soon realizes that it’s actually a karaoke version of the song, though he can’t remember the name of it.

Carlos is making his way through the room as he looks around for a place to sit, he had managed to swipe his book back from his mother and hide it under his jacket without her noticing. He makes his way through a group of people, all of them wearing ridiculous hats that you could only wear on New Year’s without being mocked.

“Howdy, partner,” says a guy in an enormous foam cowboy hat, winking at Carlos as he passed. Carlos could feel a blush rushing to his cheeks and quickly hurries to the first open seat he’s seen, desperate to find out how his book ends.

The host for the night, really just the guy in charge of the karaoke, walks back onto the stage once the last song has finished playing.

“All right! How about that for a couple of snowboarders?” he asks the crowd. The crowd claps in appreciation, grateful for once that a couple could hold a tune.

The announcer waits for the clapping to die down somewhat before saying, “Yeah! Who’s gonna rock the house next? Huh?”

Everyone averts their eyes as they pray that they will not be selected, Jay included. Jay didn’t _think_ he was a bad singer, but he didn’t wanna test that assumption in front of a bunch of strangers.

Carlos on the other hand, was too lost in his book to notice what was happening.

Suddenly Jay could feel the spotlight on him, the people around him started to urge him towards the stage as he said, “I can’t sing! No, you go.”

Carlos was just about to finish a chapter when a bright light brings him back to reality, he looks up to glare at the distraction when he notices that the host for the evening was making his way towards him.

“And you! Yeah, come on,” the host takes Carlos’ hand and leads him up to the stage, Carlos being too shocked to do anything other than do what the guy said.

“Look, I don’t sing. I _can’t_ sing. No guys!” Jay protests as he’s practically shoved up onto the stage.

Carlos looks at his singing partner and tries to hide a blush from creeping onto his face. The boy was wearing some black jeans, a white dress shirt, and a maroon jacket that hugged his muscular chest in all the right places. His dark hair went a few inches past his shoulders; the top half of it pulled back to, most likely, keep it out of his face. Basically, he was gorgeous, and Carlos was so fucked.

Jay turns to take a look at his partner, and was surprised to find a somewhat-short, freckle-faced boy with black and white hair looking back at him. His eyes widen as he sees what the kid is wearing; on his top half he’s wearing a classy white dress shirt with a black jacket, but the inside of the jacket was blood red. As Jay’s gaze travelled lower he was surprised to find that the boy was wearing _shorts_. It was the middle of winter, there was snow on the ground, and this guy was wearing _shorts_. Jay is snapped out of his own thoughts as the host handed him a microphone.

“Hey you know what? Someday you guys might thank me for this.”

Jay is about to snort and say something snarky when the host continues, “Or not.”

Jay glares at the host as the music starts playing.

Carlos holds his arms across his chest, very aware that he was now the centre of attention. Both of them are relieved when the song turns out to be something they recognize from the radio, so they know the tune well enough. They both silently thank god for the TV though, because neither of them felt that they would get the lyrics right if given the chance.

Jay looked up at the screen and saw that he had to sing first, “ _Living in my own world, didn’t understand_ ,” he clears his throat before continuing, “ _That anything can happen, when you take a chance_.”

Convinced that the boy beside him was too terrified to sing, Jay turns his back and starts to step down from the stage. But then the boy starts singing and Jay stopped in his tracks. He looked back at the boy to see him timidly singing along while looking at nothing but the TV screen, and decided that this boy was braver than he had thought.

Carlos kept singing as Jay made his way back to his own microphone, “ _I never believed in, what I couldn’t see. I never opened my heart…_ ”

“ _Ohh_ ,” Jay sings.

Carlos looked over at his partner as he sings, “ _To all the possibilities, oh…_ ”

Together they sang, “ _I know that something has changed, never felt this way…_ ”

Carlos sings, “ _And right here tonight…_ ”

“ _This could be the start of something new_ ,” Jay looks over at the other boy as he sings the next line solo.

“ _It feels so right_ ,” Carlos sings.

Jay joined back in as they sing, “ _To be here with you, and now looking in your eyes, I feel in my heart…_ ”

They meet each other’s eyes as they sing, “ _The start of something new…_ ”

As Jay looked into Carlos’ eyes, he realized that this boy wouldn’t judge him if he did something stupid. He didn’t know how he knew, but he would bet that any boy daring enough to wear dress shorts with red sneakers wouldn’t care if he had some fun.

“ _Now who’d’ve ever thought that_ ,” Jay sings as he slides off his jacket and tosses it off stage. Carlos sneaks a look at him as he does so and blushes when he sees Jay wink at him.

They both sang, “ _We’d both be here tonight?_ ”

Carlos smiles as he notices how much the song lyrics relate to their situation, “ _And the world looks so much brighter._ ”

Jay adds some background vocals as he sings, “ _Brighter, brighter…_ ”

“ _With you by my side!_ ” Carlos sings, daring to hold the last note.

The crowd is clapping along with them as they sing, “ _I know, that something has changed, never felt this way!"_

Carlos closes his eyes as he sings, “ _I know it’s for real…_ ”

They both sing, “ _This could be the start of something new! It feels so right to be here with you, oh! And now looking in your eyes, I feel in my heart…_ ”

Carlos sings, “ _The start of something new…_ ”

Jay decides to completely let go as he grabs the mic stand and leans towards Carlos as he sings, “ _I never knew that it could happen ‘til it happened to me! Oh, yeah…_ ”

Carlos grins and looks around at the screaming crowd, too happy to be embarrassed.

They both sing, “ _I didn't know it before, but now it's easy to see... OH!!!_ ” Jay’s heart skips a beat when he hears Carlos hit the high note, “ _It's the start, of something new! It feels so right to be here with you... And now looking in your eyes, I feel in my heart... That it's the start of something new!"_

Jay had been moving towards Carlos and Carlos had been backing up, suddenly he stepped back onto nothing and started to fall back, but the crowd caught him and pushed him back onto the stage, now very close to Jay. All the while Carlos had kept singing and Jay was amazed by the kid's talent.

They both sang, “ _It feels so right to be here with you, and now looking in your eyes…_ ”

Carlos sings, “ _I feel in my heart…_ ”

Jay harmonizes with Carlos as he sings, “ _Feel in my heart…_ ”

They both sing, “ _The start of something new…_ ”

Jay moves closer to Carlos as he sings, “ _Start of something new…_ ”

Carlos sings, “ _Start of-_ “

“ _Something new…_ ” they finish the song together, somehow managing to end up a breath’s distance from each other. Jay saw the boys’ eyes flit down to his lips, and Jay started to lean in when-

“Well that was amazing!” the host interrupted them, causing them to move away from each other.

The crowd continued to cheer as Jay realized that he should probably introduce himself, “I’m Jay,” he yelled over the crowd.

“Carlos,” the other boy replied, and Jay smiled. Yeah, this kid looked like a Carlos.

“Do you wanna get some hot chocolate?” Jay asked.

Carlos’ smile got wider as he replied, “Yeah I’d love to!”

“Great! Follow me; I know where to get some…” Jay trailed off as he took Carlos’ hand in his as he led them off the stage.

Carlos was grateful that Jay had his back to him as he led him to the hot chocolate, because he didn’t know if he could handle Jay seeing him when he was the colour of a cherry tomato.

Jay finally reached the “bar” at the other end of the room, though no alcohol was being served.

“Two hot chocolates please,” Jay said as he reached into his wallet to grab some money. He noticed that Carlos started to do the same so he said, “Don’t even think about it, it’s on me.” Jay grinned when he saw the younger boy put his wallet away and smile sheepishly, a faint blush making his freckles stand out even more.

As they waited for their drinks they were silent, both too nervous to break the ice, despite the fact that they’d just sang together in front of a room full of people. When they got their drinks Carlos asked Jay if he wanted to go outside, Jay nodded as he followed Carlos to the door, desperately trying to think of something to say. Finally Jay decided to just do what he did best, and pick the cheesiest line in the book…

“Are you from heaven? Because your voice is like an angel’s,” Jay whispered into Carlos’ ear. Carlos flushed as he opened the door to go outside, thankful for the cold night air to calm his nerves.

Jay chuckled at Carlos’ embarrassment and said, “Seriously, you have an amazing voice. You’re a singer right?”

Carlos replied, “Ha! Not likely… my mom is… strict? She doesn’t like me being involved in things that aren’t school related…”

Jay looked at Carlos in surprise, “Really? Why’s that?”

Carlos laughed bitterly as he replied, “She thinks distractions will ruin my future, really I think she just likes to be in control.”

“Well with the way you sang tonight, that’s hard to believe,” Jay remarked, wondering how many more times this boy would surprise him.

“That was the first time I’ve done something like that! I mean it was so cool!” Carlos beamed as he thought back on it; he couldn’t believe that he’d even gotten through the song!

“I know!” Jay agreed, “Completely!”

Carlos looked up at Jay as he said, “Well you sounded like you’ve done a lot of singing too!”

Jay smirked as he replied, “Yeah sure, my showerhead is very impressed…”

They both turned towards the partygoers inside as they heard the countdown, although it was somewhat muffled through the doors.

 

9, 8, 7…

 

They both look at each other awkwardly, unsure of what to do.

 

…6, 5, 4…

 

Jay sees a faint blush on Carlos’ cheeks and wonders if it’s a good idea to kiss him…

 

…3…

 

Carlos sees Jay look at his lips and his breathing starts coming quicker.

 

…2 …

 

They both lean in until they’re millimeters apart…

 

1!

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

 

They both jerk apart as someone waves a sparkler in front of their faces, hearing fireworks go off in the sky. They turn to look at them, knowing that whatever moment they had was lost.

Carlos is the first to break the silence as he says, “I guess- I guess I better go find my mom and wish her a happy new year.”

Jay smiles and says, “Yeah, me too. I mean, not your mom. My mom… and dad.”

Carlos looks down as he realizes that this will probably be the last time they’ll see each other, Jay seems to realize this too as he blurts out, “Uh… I’ll call you! I’ll call you tomorrow!”

Carlos’ face lights up as he says, “Yeah!” and reaches into his jacket for his phone.

Jay hands him his phone and says, “Here, put your number in.” Afterwards he tilts his phone up so it’s facing Carlos, “Say Cheese!” Carlos grins as Jay snaps a picture of him.

“You too,” Carlos says as he hands his phone over to Jay.

Jay puts his number in quickly and takes a selfie for his contact photo, “There you go.”

Carlos smiles as Jay turns away, his blush deepening as he thinks about what other photos Jay could take with his phone.

Jay looks back at his phone and says, “Just so you know, singing with you was the most fun I’ve had on this vacation… So, um… Where do you live?” Jay trailed off as he noticed that Carlos was no longer next to him. He spun around but couldn’t see him anywhere.

Jay looked down at his phone where the picture of Carlos was still being displayed, he grinned as he said to himself, “Carlos.”


	2. Getcha Head in the Game

One Week Later  
Auradon

As Jay stepped off of the big yellow limo he took to school every day, he was happy to see that nothing had changed. Kids everywhere were asking their friends about their holidays, some reminiscing on the things they did together. Mal was playing keep away with one of the cheerleaders, one of her favourite past times.

Mal had been Jay’s best friend since… well since before Jay could remember when he made friends. His parents had been friends so they had had to hang out by default, but that didn’t mean that their friendship wasn’t real. After years of wedgies, wet willies, and a handful of other pranks, (most, surprisingly, delivered by Mal), Jay and Mal had become thick as thieves.

She was also one of the only people that could read his mind, both on and off the tourney field. Yeah, she’s on the tourney team. She practically threatened to burn the school down if they didn’t let her try out, and when she did she proved that not only was she better than the boys who _didn’t_ make the team, she was also better than a lot of the boys that _did._

When Mal saw him step off of the bus she reached up to put one of her hands on his shoulder as she said, “Jay! How are you, man?”

Jay smiled and waved to a few of his other friends as he replied, “Hey Mal, what’s up?”

“Nothing much, I mean school is school you know?” Mal said.

Jay turned to the people in his immediate vicinity as he continued, “Hey guys, Happy New Year!”

Mal smirked as she said, “Hell yeah! It’s gonna be a Happy Knight New Year!” She paused as a couple people cheered at her statement, “In two weeks we’re going to the championships, with _you_ leading us to infinity and beyond!”

Someone in the crowd called out, “WHAT TEAM?”

“KNIGHTS!” they all responded.

“WHAT TEAM?” They called again.

“KNIGHTS!” they yelled louder, more students joining in on the cheer.

Jay wasn’t sure if he heard anyone do the rest of the cheer, as he and his friends had just walked through the school doors and probably wouldn’t’ve been able to hear it. Jay smiled as someone clapped him on the back and wished him a Happy New Year, easily falling back into the mundanity that is high school. All of a sudden he heard the click-clack of heels, he looked up to see Audrey walking towards them, not even looking up from her phone as she put out her hands to get them to move out of her way, which they did. Her twin brother, Doug, trailed behind her as they made their way to homeroom.

Jay smirked as he heard Ben say, “Brrr… The ice princess has returned from the North Pole.”

“You know she probably spent the holidays the way she always does,” Mal said.

“How’s that?” Ben asked.

“Shopping for mirrors.” Mal finished, smiling as she heard them all laugh along with her.

Evie had been putting up flyers for the scholastic decathlon when she heard the tourney team enter the school. As they walked away she sighed and said, “Ugh, behold the zoo animals heralding the New Year. How tribal.”

Just then the bell rang, and everyone said goodbye to their friends as they each made their way to their respective homerooms.

 

* * *

 

Carlos was walking through the now empty halls of Auradon Prep, flanked by his mother and the school’s principal, Mr. Benson. Principal Benson was trying to inform Carlos’ mother about the curriculum at Auradon Prep, but Cruella was too busy scowling at the few students that remained in the hallway to care.

“Mom… mom my stomach…” Carlos complained, naively hoping that his mother would let him stay home from school if she thought he had a stomach-ache.

“Shut up. If you had eaten more for breakfast this morning you’d be fine, you have no one to blame for yourself,” Cruella snapped, running her fingers through her son’s hair.

Principal Benson cleared his throat and said, “I’ve reviewed your transcripts, it seems like Auradon Prep will be gaining a huge asset now that you’re in our midst.”

Carlos looked up at his mother as she said, “And I’ve made my company promise that we won’t move for at least a year, so you’ll have plenty of time to get accustomed to a new environment.”

Carlos knew that his mother was only saying that for Principal Benson’s benefit, in actuality she couldn’t give less of a shit about Carlos’ well-being. She just didn’t like her company bouncing her around from place to place like a ping-pong ball, she practically threatened to skin them alive and make them into coats if they didn’t let her stay in one place for over a year, and since she was surprisingly valuable, they conceded. Carlos didn’t even know what his mother did for a living, the only time he had asked she had locked him in her closet until he had promised her that he would never ask her again.

“I don’t want to be the school’s freaky genius boy again…” Carlos muttered as he took his class schedule form Principal Benson.

“And I don’t want to be here any longer than I have to, so suck it up and get to class. And you better make sure that you keep up with your classes, you remember what happened the last time you forgot your place,” Cruella hissed into his ear, quiet enough so only he could hear her. Afterwards she brought Carlos in for a hug and kissed him on the top of the head, always keeping up with appearances.

“This way,” Principal Benson said as he gestured down one of the hallways leading to his first class. Carlos looked back at his mother when he reached the stairs he needed to take to the second floor, hoping that she might care enough to see him until he was out of sight, but all he saw when he turned around was the end of her coat disappearing through the exit.

 

* * *

 

Jay looked around at the people in his homeroom, most of them people he had been going to school with since kindergarten, and knew that his junior year was going to be just as uneventful as his sophomore year had been. He had been around his classmates for so long that he didn’t even need to be involved in their conversations to guess at what they were talking about.

Ben and Mal were most likely talking about tourney, or some other sport, as they tossed a tourney ball between them. Audrey was ordering Doug to do something, and knowing her it was something _important_ , like how she needed him to get her a latte at lunch instead of getting one herself. Evie was using the few seconds before class to touch up her makeup, though she was probably calculating the atomic weight of silver in her head as she did so. Jane was huddled over some sheet music, most likely writing or composing something for the next school musical, and Ms. Fair, their homeroom teacher, busied herself with papers on her desk.

Jay was talking to Chad about a party he had been at a couple nights before, something the students at Auradon Prep did every year to finish off the break.

 “Can you remember the night at all?” Chad asked.

“No not at all! All I can remember is like, pink jelly and-” Jay stopped short as he caught a glimpse of a boy with black and white hair walk past him. He was about to move towards him when Audrey stepped out from behind her desk and blocked his way.

“Hey there Jay,” Audrey said as she smiled flirtatiously.

“Uh, hi,” Jay responded as he tried to look around her, but couldn’t see anything as the final bell for class rang.

“Well I hope that everyone had splendid holidays!” Ms. Fair called out as everyone hurried to take their seats, “Check the sign-up sheets in the hallway for new activities, _Mr. Williams_ ,” Jay, who had still been standing, quickly sat down in his seat as Ms. Fair continued with her speech.

Jay turned around when he felt someone tap his shoulder, he saw Mal mouth ‘ _You Okay?’_ as she gripped onto her tourney stick. Jay nodded his head as he kept glancing around the classroom, convinced that what he saw wasn’t his imagination.

“…we will have singles auditions for supporting roles, and pairs auditions for our two leads.” Ms. Fair concluded.

“Pfft,” Mal huffed as she made a weird face at Ben. Ben chuckled at her expression, but quickly stopped when Ms. Fair turned her attention to them.

“Ms. Wright, this is a place of learning, not a hockey arena,” Ms. Fair said as she eyed Mal’s tourney stick, causing Mal to move it below her desk, but not let go of it.

“There is also a final sign-up for next week’s scholastic decathlon competition!” Ms. Fair exclaimed, “Chem Club president Evie Carson can answer all of your questions regarding that.”

As Ms. Fair made her way to the back of the room, Jay took this time to pull out his phone. Ms. Fair’s back was still to him, so he quickly scrolled to the contact marked ‘Carlos’ and tapped the call button. Jay heard a phone ring near the back of the room and he turned back around to try and locate where it was coming from.

Carlos heard his phone ring from his backpack and his eyes widened, he had forgotten to put it on silent; he scrambled to get his phone out of his bag so he could shut it off. He looked at the screen to see a smiling picture of Jay; he furrowed his brow, why would Jay be calling him now?

“Ah, so I see that none of you decided to do the smart thing and leave your phones in your lockers while you attended this class,” Ms. Fair sighed as she started making her way around the class with a bucket.

Audrey and Doug were each checking their phones when Ms. Fair stopped beside their desks, “Audrey and Doug, cell phones. And I will see you in detention.”

“What?” Audrey exclaimed as she dropped her phone into the bucket, Doug quickly following suit.

Making her way to the back of the room she continued, “We have zero tolerance for cell phones in class here at Auradon Prep, so we will get to know each other in detention. Cell phone.”

Carlos gulped as he placed his cell phone in the bucket, still wondering what Jay had been calling about.

“Oh, and welcome to our school Mr. De Vil,” Ms. Fair smiled before moving along, “Mr. Williams, I see that your phone is involved! So I guess we’ll be seeing you in detention as well.”

“That’s not a possibility, Ms. Fair,” Mal interjected, “Your Honor, see we have tourney practice after school, and Jay-”

“That will be 15 minutes for you too, Ms. Wright. Count ‘em,” Ms. Fair cut her off.

“That could be tough for Mal,” whispered Evie, “Since she probably can’t count that high.”

The class tried to muffle their snickers as Ms. Fair said, “Evie Carson, 15 minutes.”

Evie gasped as she brought a hand up to cover her mouth, careful not to smudge her lipstick.

“Shall I continue?” Ms. Fair asked, “Holidays are over people! Way over! Now…” she paused as she collected herself, “Any more comments, questions?”

The class was silent as Chad raised his hand.

“Yes Chad?” Ms. Fair asked.

“How were your holidays, Ms. Fair?” Chad inquired, causing a groan to come from his classmates. “What?” he asked as he looked at the people around him, not completely understanding why his question got the reaction it did.

Just then the bell rang, and everyone collected their things and headed out the door to their next class.

Jay headed for the door as soon as the bell rang, determined to catch a glimpse of everyone who came out of the class. He leaned against the wall directly outside the classroom, able to see anyone who entered the hallway.

Carlos was slower at gathering his things, still in a state of confusion over what happened in his first period, but tried to be quick when he saw a tall boy in a maroon hoodie with long dark hair exit the classroom.

“See you in detention,” Mal said as she started heading down the hallway.

“Yeah I’ll see you later,” Jay replied, not taking his eyes off of the classroom for more than a couple seconds. Suddenly a boy with snow white hair and black roots stepped out of the classroom and started walking in the direction opposite of Jay, he quickly moved so he was beside him.

“Hey!” Jay said as he caught up to him, relieved to see that it was the boy from the lodge.

“I don’t…” Carlos trailed off, too happy and confused to finish his sentence.

“Believe it,” Jay finished for him.

“Well, me…” Carlos started.

“Either,” Jay finished, a smile slowly working its way onto his face, “But how? I mean, no offense, but you don’t exactly look like a junior…”

“I skipped a grade, really I should be a sophomore but because my mom’s always pushed me to be the best… well it was beneficial to just move me up a grade. And I’m here ‘cause my mom’s company transferred her to here in Auradon… I can’t believe you live here! I mean I looked for you at the lodge on New Year’s Day but I couldn’t find you…” Carlos grew quieter as he continued talking, aware that his actions might come across as more stalker-ish than he meant them to.

“We had to leave first thing,” Jay said, a funny feeling building in his stomach when he knew that Carlos had thought about him as much as he had thought about Carlos.

“Why are you whispering?” Carlos asked, furrowing his brow.

“What?” Jay started, before realizing how quiet he was being, “Oh uh… well my friends know about the snowboarding, but they don’t really know about the singing thing.”

Carlos chuckled as he asked, “Too much for them to handle?”

“No it was cool!” Jay said, “But my friends… uh… well it’s just not what I do. I mean that was like a different person-” Jay stopped when Carlos cut him off by heading down the hallway to their left.

Carlos smiled when he heard Jay jog to catch up with him, happy now that he knew he hadn’t scared the guy off.

“So, uh… anyway,” Jay started, “Welcome to Auradon Prep!” He opened his arms wide as if he were gesturing to the entire school. He saw Carlos eyeing the school’s bulletin board and commented, “Ah, and now that you’ve met Ms. Fair I’m sure you’ll want to sign up for the winter musi _cale_.”

“Yeah, I don’t think I’ll be signing up for anything for a while,” Carlos said, remembering his mother’s warning about his grades, “I just… wanna get used to the school.” He saw Jay’s smile falter at his tone, so he quickly continued, “But if you sign up I’d consider coming to the show!”

Jay laughed as he replied, “Yeah, that’s completely impossible.”

“Impossible, Jay? What’s impossible?” Jay groaned internally as he saw Audrey come out from behind a pillar. “I didn’t know impossible was even in your vocabulary.” Audrey eyed Carlos up and down, obviously disapproving of his style. Today Carlos was wearing white shorts, a white shirt with black paint splatter on it, and the same red sneakers from New Year’s; an outfit that Jay thought was pretty cool.

“It’s so nice of you to show our new classmate around,” Audrey smiled sweetly as she turned her attention to the winter musical sign-up sheet. She pulled a pink sharpie out of her bag and proceeded to sign her name so big that there was hardly any room for anyone else to sign up if they wanted to.

Audrey turned back around and, noticing Jay and Carlos’ expressions, asked them, “Oh, were you going to sign up too? My brother and I have starred in all of the school’s productions, and we really welcome newcomers! Yeah, there are a lot of supporting roles in the show so I’m sure we can find something for you!”

Carlos smiled at Audrey’s fake sincerity and replied, “Oh no, I was just looking at all the bulletin boards. There sure does seem to be a lot going on at this school.”

Carlos started walking in the direction of his next class before pausing to smirk at Audrey and say, “Nice penmanship.” And with one last smile to Jay, Carlos made his way to end of the hall and around the corner.

Jay tried to sneak away while Audrey was distracted by Carlos, but only made it a couple steps before he heard, “So, Jay! How was your vacation? I missed you…” Audrey looked at Jay through her eyelashes, trying and failing to be seductive. Jay internally kicked himself in the nuts for deciding to date her a year ago, they’d barely lasted a week but she had become increasingly more annoying as the days went on, which was surprising since _she_ dumped _him_.

“Yeah, Audrey… uh, I missed you too?” Jay stammered as he tried to figure out what magical combination of words would get her to leave him alone.

“What’d you do?” Audrey asked.

“Oh you know, the usual… tourney, snowboarding, more tourney,” Jay replied.

“When’s the big game?” she asked.

“Two weeks,” Jay answered, the date had been permanently imprinted on his brain since the season started.

“Wow… you are so dedicated,” Audrey complimented, causing Jay to quirk an eyebrow, “Just like me!”

Jay didn’t know what to say to that, so he stayed quiet until Audrey said, “I hope you come watch me in the school musical… Promise?” Jay nods his head, hoping that this will finally be the action to get him the hell out of there.

“Toodles!” Audrey called out as Jay turned away.

Jay turned back and awkwardly said, “Toodles…” Then he turned on his heel and headed directly for the locker room.

 

* * *

 

Practice was turning out to be hell, for some reason Jay couldn’t seem to focus. He was missing the net on easy shots, and he’d even let his guard down enough to be tackled! He jogged over to where his bag was on the side of the field so he could drink some water, and as he did so he heard someone approach him, looking down he saw that it was Mal.

“Hey man, what’s going on with you today?” Mal asked.

“I dunno… I mean I guess I’ve kinda been thinking about what Ms. Fair said about the school musical,” Jay replied, knowing that Mal could tell when he wasn’t being honest.

“Pfft, why?” Mal asked, “It sounds like it’s gonna be one of the dumbest things ever, with like leotards and glitter and shit. I mean, it’s called _Twinkle_ _Town_!” Mal continued to laugh at the idea of it, but lost some of her mirth when she saw that Jay wasn’t laughing with her. “Hey what gives?” she asked.

“No, it’s just- Like I heard that you get extra credit just for auditioning! And I mean it’s always good to have extra credit…” Jay trailed off when he saw Mal’s left eyebrow raise.

“Jay,” Mal started, “Do you think that Aladdin and Shang became famous tourney players by auditioning for their school musical?”

“Maybe,” Jay said defensively, I mean who knows nowadays? It wasn’t impossible to think that some famous tourney players could like singing show tunes in their spare time.

“Dude,” Mal said, “You do not want to be in that production. I mean, it’s all… show music, and costumes, and makeup!” Mal’s face turned into a grimace as she said, “Ugh, it’s frightening.”

Jay smirked and said, “Yeah, yeah I just thought it might be a good laugh.”

Mal looked him up and down before resting a hand on his shoulder and saying, “I’m sure it would be, but we are too close to the championships for you to be filling your head with lyrics from _Les Mis_. And before you ask, I only know what _Les Mis_ is because my mom is obsessed with Hugh Jackman, okay?”

Jay smiled down at Mal and said, “Thanks Mal, I needed that.”

“No worries brother,” Mal replied, “I’m used to it by now. It seems like every year there’s something distracting you, it’s probably just the stress of the championships, but I’ll always be here to help you get your head in the game.”

Jay pulled Mal into his side, much to her chagrin, and called out, “Okay, Knights! We’re gonna run through play 18!” And with a swift punch to the gut from Mal, Jay made his way out onto the field.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So as you can tell, I won't be writing out the songs that are fantasy in the movies. And Fairy Godmother is Ms. Fair, though I hope I made that somewhat obvious! Please comment what you think!!! :)


	3. Be Our Guest

Carlos’ second period turned out to be Chemistry, so he was in a relatively good mood when Audrey walked into the class and sat down across from him. He didn’t exactly know her that well, and he didn’t want to write her off on a first impression, he wasn’t going to go out of his way to get to know her, but if she initiated something he wouldn’t be a dick.

“So,” Audrey said as she leaned closer to Carlos, “It seems like you know Jay pretty well.”

Carlos fought a blush as he smiled and said, “No, not really. He was just showing me around.”

“Ha, well, Jay doesn’t normally interact with… new students,” Audrey explained.

Carlos turned to look from his equation to the one the teacher was writing on the board, absently asking Audrey, “Oh, well why not?”

“Well it’s basically tourney 24/7 with him,” Audrey replied.

“That should be balanced with a 6…” Carlos murmured as he rechecked his work.

“Yes, Mr. De Vil?” the teacher asked as she turned around.

Carlos’ eyes widened as he tentatively said, “Oh sorry, it’s just… shouldn’t the second equation be balanced with a 6 instead of a 4?”

Evie looked up from her own work; she hadn’t even gotten through that question yet. She eyed the strange boy up and down, happy that there was one other person in this school that cared about appearances as much as she did, and knew that if he were correct he was the person that the scholastic decathlon team needed.

“With a 6? No, that’s impossible…” the teacher trailed off as she did the math again. After a couple seconds she looked up at Carlos and said, “Well it looks like I stand corrected,” she turned around to fix the equation on the board, but stopped to turn back around and say, “And welcome to Auradon Prep, Mr. De Vil.”

Carlos grinned, happy that for once in his life he had been smart to speak up. The rest of the class went by in a blur as Carlos got lost in his work, not even noticing that Audrey had fallen silent.

 

* * *

 

Audrey was strutting down the hallway towards her next class, wondering which outfit she should wear the following day, when her brother took her arm and steered her towards the musical’s sign-up sheet.

“Jay Williams,” Doug started, “Was looking at our audition list.”

“Again?” Audrey asked as she thought about how he had been acting strange since he got back from winter break. “You know, he was hanging around with that new boy and they were _both_ looking at the list… There’s something… off, about him. Where did he say he was from?” Audrey inquired. Doug was too deep in thought to hear her, and Audrey walked away with a huff as she went to find a computer.

Audrey sat down and typed out CARLOS DE VIL into Google, hoping that her questions would be answered quickly. She scrolled down until she saw a link that read ‘Whiz Kid Leads School to Scholastic Championship’ and clicked on it, grinning when she saw a photo of the weirdo pop up on the screen.

“Whoa,” Doug said as he read the article, “He’s like a mini Einstein, the hair even sorta matches… But why would he be interested in our musical?”

Audrey shook her head as she replied, “You know, I’m not even sure that he is. And we shouldn’t even concern ourselves with him; I mean talk about an amateur! But…” Audrey said as she moved the mouse to click the PRINT button, “There’s no harm in making certain that he knows his place here in Auradon.”

And with a click of her mouse, Audrey printed off what she needed and walked out of the library, her heels echoing in her wake.

 

* * *

 

If you had told Jay when he had woken up that morning that he would be up in a wooden tree stapling leaves to fake branches, he would’ve told you to get a cat scan. Yet, here he was, sitting on the top of one of the props that needed to be finished for the winter musicale as his other detention-mates worked on the rest. Mal was below him, painting the trunk of the tree to look like actual bark, and she was amazingly good at it. Though it didn’t come as a surprise to Jay; Mal’s love for tourney was untested, but she also had a love for art that put Picasso and Van Gogh to shame.

Audrey and Doug, though also in detention, were walking around and “supervising” their classmates, making sure that they didn’t fuck up any of the props that were to be used in “their” show.

Carlos was painting an enormous crescent moon, praying that he would still have enough time to get home to do his chores, when he heard a squeal from behind him.

“Yes! Yes, the answer is yes!” Evie exclaimed as she moved around Carlos so she could face him.

“Huh?” Carlos asked, not having the slightest clue what she was talking about.

“Our scholastic decathlon team has its first competition next week, and there is definitely a spot for you!” Evie smiled as she tried to contain her excitement, waving the papers in her hands like a fan to calm herself down.

Carlos saw the papers and exclaimed, “Hey! Where did those come from?”

Evie’s face fell as she asked, “Um… didn’t you put them in my locker?”

Carlos stammered as he replied, “N-no, no of course not.”

“Well,” Evie said, “Regardless, we would love to have you on our team! We meet almost every day after school… please?” Evie was hoping to God that the boy would say yes, with him they might have a chance of winning this year!

Carlos went back to focusing on painting as he replied, “I think I need to catch up on the curriculum here first, you know, before I even _think_ about joining any clubs.”

“But what better way to get caught up?” Audrey interjected, smiling sweetly before continuing, “I mean meeting with the smartest kids in school! What a kind offer Evie!”

Evie’s rolled her eyes, and Carlos was at least somewhat comforted that someone seemed to dislike Audrey as much as he did.

“So many new faces in detention today,” Ms. Fair cut in, “I hope you don’t make a habit of it, but the drama department can always use an extra hand! Now, since I have your attention, how about we all delve into the fundamental problems of the cell phone!”

Jay tuned her out as he stapled another leaf to the tree, occasionally glancing over at Carlos and smiling. Carlos didn’t seem to notice that he had gotten some paint on his face, but Jay did, and every time he looked over at the younger boy he couldn’t help but think of the number of ways he could help him clean it off…

“Where’s my team, Fair?” Jay snapped out of his daydreams as he heard Coach Jenkins yell. He looked up to see him marching down one of the aisles that led to the stage where everyone was working. “And what the hell are those two doing in a tree?” he exclaimed when he got close enough to see Jay and Mal.

“It’s called crime and punishment, Jenkins. Besides, proximity to the arts is cleansing for the soul.” Ms. Fair explained as she gestured to the stage.

“Can we have a talk, please?” the Coach forced out through his teeth, “And you two, on the field. _Now_.”

Jay scrambled down from the tree as he grabbed Mal’s arm, the other arm still holding her tourney stick, and quickly made their way to the field.

 

* * *

 

Principal Benson sighed when he saw Coach Jenkins and Ms. Fair enter his office, already knowing that their reason for being in his office was so he could settle another argument. He wasn’t really listening to what they had to say, but understood that the Coach was mad because his boys were in detention, and Ms. Fair was angry because she felt that the tourney team was getting special treatment.

“We are just two weeks away from our biggest game of the season!” Coach Jenkins argued.

“And we are in the middle of auditioning students for the winter musicale! Believe it or not this school is about more than your players shooting baskets for touchdowns!” Ms. Fair rebutted.

“Goals, they score goals!” the Coach exclaimed, baffled by the lady’s idea of how tourney worked.

“Alright stop!” Principal Benson said, causing them to turn to look at him, “You two have been having this argument for _years_ , since you both started teaching here in fact, and I’m tired of it. We are _one_ school, student body, and faculty! Can you at least agree on that?”

This seemed to deflate them somewhat as Benson asked, “So Coach, how’s the team lookin’? Jay got ‘em whipped into shape?”

Ms. Fair threw her hands up into the air as she spun around and huffed out of the office, leaving the men to their discussion.

 

* * *

 

“We’ve never even made it past the first round of the scholastic decathlon; you could be our answered prayer!” Evie had decided to walk with Carlos on his way home from school, when she discovered that their houses were only a couple streets away from each other, and was determined to convince him to join the team.

Carlos smiled as he said, “I’m just focusing on my studies this semester, and help my mom get our house organized. Maybe next year?” He grimaced as he thought about his mother, knowing that she would most likely punish him for getting detention on his first day.

“But-” Evie was about to continue when Carlos quickly changed the subject.

“What do you know about Jay Williams?” Carlos asked.

“Jay? Hmm… I wouldn’t consider myself an expert on that subject, however, if you speak cheerleader…” Carlos watched as Evie went into the middle of a group of cheerleaders and squealed, “Oh, my gosh! Isn’t Jay like the hottest guy on the tourney team?”

Carlos laughed as the cheerleaders all started agreeing and swooning at the thought of him, Evie quickly pulling him along so they wouldn’t be trapped.

“I guess I don’t know how to speak cheerleader,” Carlos said.

“Which is why we exist in an alternate universe to Jay, the tourney gay,” Evie replied.

“Wait, what?” Carlos spluttered, certain that he had heard her wrong.

“What?” Evie furrowed her brow, than gave a knowing look as she explained, “Oh, well I guess he isn’t exactly gay… he’s bisexual. But given how much you talk about him I was certain that you knew…?”

“Well, I didn’t… and you shouldn’t call him gay,” Carlos said, “It’s not the same thing.”

Evie looked at Carlos and softened, “You’re right, I’m sorry. I promise to never call him gay again… okay?”

Carlos gave a small smile as Evie took his arm and directed them away from the school.

 

* * *

 

Jay had been practicing tourney shots for an hour when his dad came outside, a look on his face that said he wanted to talk. Jay sat down on the grass as his dad sat down next to him.

“So, detention on your first day back?” Jafar asked, looking at his son.

“It was my fault dad, I’m sorry-” Jay started.

“You know Fair will take any opportunity to bust the tourney team’s chops, and that includes yours too.” Jafar continued.

Jay looked down and said, “Hey Dad? Have you ever… thought about trying something new, but were worried about what your friends might think?”

Jafar thought for a moment before answering, “You mean like getting a hair-cut or something?”

“No,” Jay replied, “I mean like something _really_ new, and it’s a complete disaster and all your friends laugh at you?”

Jafar put a hand on his son’s shoulder as he said, “Well then, maybe they’re not really your friends.”

Jay let his father’s words sink in as he gave his shoulder one last squeeze and headed back into the house, Jay practicing well after it was dark as he thought about what tomorrow would bring.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> You know the drill, comment what you think! :)


	4. What I've Been Looking For

Carlos had arrived at school hours before anyone else was due to show up, the doors weren’t even open yet, but he didn’t have much of a choice. When he had gotten home last night he had been right when he thought that he’d be punished, his mother had grabbed him by his arm and threw him in the closet without dinner, she had only let him out after her second bottle of wine, accompanied by many comments like, “Oh my baby I’m sorry, you know mummy doesn’t mean it!” or, “You know how I can be, I just love you too much to see you in trouble.” Usually those comments had given Carlos some sense of relief, to see that his mother truly did care for him, but lately he was getting more and more certain that she only said these things so he wouldn’t completely up and leave her.

This morning he had woken up extremely early, desperate to get out of the house before his mother could even find out that he was gone. So he sat at the back of the school, out of sight from the main entrance, and waited until enough people had shown up to start making his way to homeroom.

He walked into homeroom to see Audrey hand Ms. Fair a cup of tea as she said, “Just something for you.”

 _Kiss ass_ , thought Carlos as he took his seat near the back of the room. He turned his head as the tourney team entered the room, and grinned when he saw Jay lift his hand in a small wave. Jay was wearing a dark red V-neck with a black leather jacket; an outfit that made Carlos wish he could discover a superpower of x-ray vision.

“I expect we all learned out homeroom manners yesterday?” Ms. Fair said as she motioned for Jay to take his seat.

Jay looked back at Carlos and smiled again, silently approving of the younger boy’s decision to wear a funky black, white, and red jacket with his trademark shorts and red shoes.

“If not,” Ms. Fair continued, “There are some dressing rooms that need painting. Now, a few announcements. This morning during free period will be your one and _only_ chance to audition for the winter musicale, both single and pairs. I will be in the theatre until noon for those of you bold enough to extend the wingspan of your creative spirit.

Mal snorted as she leaned forward to Jay and whispered, “When’s she due back on the mother ship?”

Jay laughed along with her, but silently wondered what exactly he was going to be doing on his free period.

 

* * *

 

“Hey man,” Mal greeted as Jay shut his locker, “The team’s hitting the field during free period, what should we run?”

“Uh, yeah Mal I can’t make it, I gotta catch up on some… homework,” Jay lied.

“What?” Mal asked, “It’s only the second day back! _I’m_ not even behind yet, and I’ve been behind since kindergarten.”

Jay forced a laugh as he said, “That’s hilarious! I’ll see you later.” And with that he ducked into the nearest classroom.

Mal furrowed her brow as she followed Jay, convinced that he was lying to her about where he was going, but after following him through multiple classrooms, the kitchen, and the school workshop, Jay disappeared from her sight. Mal sighed and cursed under her breath, making her way to the field as she tried to think of a way to tell the team that their captain wasn’t coming.

 

* * *

 

Jay liked to believe that he was courageous, everyone else seemed to think so, but he had always thought that courage on the tourney field and in real life were extremely different from each other. The fact that he’d never really had to be courageous in his personal life could explain why he wasn’t actually telling Ms. Fair he wanted to audition for the musical, and was instead standing at the back of the auditorium hiding behind a mop.

“Hello all!” Ms. Fair greeted the students, “For those of you wishing to audition, you must understand that time is of the essence. We have many roles to cast and final callbacks will be next week. Now, how this will work is simple. You’ll each sing a few bars and I will give you a sense of whether or not the theatre is your calling. It’s better to hear it from me now than from your friends later.”

Jay chuckled as she continued, “Our composer, Jane Carter, will accompany you and be available for rehearsals prior to callbacks. Shall we?” Ms. Fair stepped down from the stage and started calling names from the sign-up sheet.

He watched in silence as the singles auditions took place, getting increasingly more nervous with each performance. He didn’t even really know why he was there, all he knew that the feeling he got when he sang with Carlos was one he wanted to experience again and again… even if it essentially meant social suicide.

Speaking of which, Jay suddenly heard a noise behind him and turned to see Carlos smiling up at him.

“Hey,” Carlos said, eyeing the janitor’s cart and mop curiously, “Did you decide to sign up for something?”

“Uh… no. You?” Jay replied.

“No… uh, why are you hiding behind a mop?” Carlos asked as he raised an eyebrow. Jay pushed away the cart as Carlos said, “You’re friends don’t know you’re here, right?”

“Right,” Jay said with a smile.

“Is the tourney team’s superstar afraid?” Carlos teased, poking Jay in the gut.

“No! I’m not afraid. I… I’m just… scared,” Jay finished weakly.

“Me too, though that’s not unusual,” Carlos said.

“And for the lead roles of Minnie and Arnold we only have one couple signed up. Audrey and Doug, I think it might be useful for you to give us a sense of why we gather in this hallowed hall.” Ms. Fair’s voice interrupted their thoughts and Jay and Carlos froze, quickly deciding that hiding behind the janitor’s cart was less stupid than they thought.

As Audrey and Doug made their way to the stage, Jay couldn’t help but pay attention to how close Carlos was to him. In their haste to hide themselves Carlos had ended up directly in front of Jay, close enough that Jay could tell that Carlos used a strawberry scented shampoo. Realizing that if they stayed this close Jay would have a much bigger problem than his fear of singing, he leaned down and whispered, “Maybe we should sit down.”

Carlos’ eyes shut as he felt Jay’s breath against his neck, using every ounce of his willpower not to shiver. He nodded his head and moved away from Jay, taking a seat at the very back of the auditorium, with Jay sitting right beside him. By the time they got settled Audrey and Doug had disappeared behind the curtain, and as the music started and their hands started to snap along to the beat through the slit in the curtain, Jay and Carlos looked at each other and resisted the urge to laugh.

“ _It’s hard to believe, that I couldn’t see_ ,” Doug started singing.

Audrey joined as they sang, “ _You were always there beside me._ ”

As the song went on Jay and Carlos sobered up as they realized that Audrey and Doug were actually really good singers, and the butterflies in their stomach’s turned to hornets when they realized that they were going to be following _them_.

When they finished everyone politely applauded, some out of fear for what Audrey would do to them if they didn’t.

“Are there any last minute sign-ups?” Ms. Fair called out, looking around the auditorium.

Carlos and Jay slowly sneaked out of their seats so they were hidden behind the wall at the back, both conflicted as to whether they wanted to sing or not.

“No? Good. Done,” Ms. Fair reached over to turn off the light by her desk and started making her way towards the exit.

“I’d like to audition, Ms. Fair,” Carlos called out as he stepped out from behind the wall.

Jay’s eyes widened as Ms. Fair turned to look at Carlos, Jay quickly ducking behind the wall again so she didn’t see him as well.

“Timeliness means something in the world of theatre, young man. The individual auditions are _long_ over and there are simply no other pairs.”

Jay scrunched up his face as he said, “I’ll sing with him.” He moved out from behind his hiding spot, looking from Carlos, who looked as nervous as Jay felt, to Ms. Fair.

“Jay Williams? Where is your sports posse or whatever it’s called?” Ms. Fair asked as she raised an eyebrow.

“Team,” Jay replied, “But I’m here alone. Actually…” Jay paused as he turned to look at Carlos, “I here to sing with him.”

“Yes, well, we take these shows very seriously here in Auradon Prep. I called for the pairs auditions, and you didn’t respond. Free period is now over.” Ms. Fair once again started making her way to the exit.

“But he has an amazing voi-” Jay started.

“Perhaps,” Ms. Fair interrupted, “The next musicale.” And with an adjustment of her shawl she was down the aisle and out the door.

Jay and Carlos were just about to follow her out when they heard a crash from the stage, Jane had slipped on something and her sheet music and scattered everywhere. Jay and Carlos hurried to the stage to help her.

“So, you’re a composer?” Jay asked. Jane nodded as Jay continued, “So you wrote the song that Audrey and Doug just sang?” She stayed silent as she nodded again so Jay said, “And the entire show?” Jane nodded once more so Jay handed her the sheet music he had collected as he said, “Well, that’s really cool. I can’t wait to hear the rest of the show.”

Jay stuck a hand out to help Jane to her feet and posed the question, “So, why are you so afraid of Audrey and Doug? I mean isn’t it _your_ show?”

Jane’s brow furrowed as she finally replied, “It is?”

“Well, isn’t the composer of the show kind of like the playmaker in tourney?” Jay asked, trying to explain what he meant in the best way he can.

“Playmaker?” Jane asked, obviously unsure as to how tourney worked.

“They’re like, the person who makes everyone else look good. Without the playmaker, there are no plays, and no team. Without you there’s no show, you’re the playmaker here, Jane.”

“I am?” Jane smiled as she ducked her head. She looked up and asked, “Do you wanna hear how the duet’s supposed to sound?”

She made her way over to the piano when they nodded, and started playing a slow ballad, completely unlike the upbeat number that Audrey and Doug had just performed. Jay looked at the sheet music and saw that Doug’s part was first, so on a leap of faith he took a deep breath and started to sing, “ _It’s hard to believe, that I couldn’t see, you were always there beside me_.”

“ _Thought I was alone, with no one to hold,_ ” Carlos sang as he grinned up at Jay, quickly turning back to the sheet music for the lyrics.

“ _But you were always right beside me,_ ” they sang together, “ _This feeling’s like no other, I want you to know. That I’ve never had someone that knows me like you do, the way you do._ ” Carlos turned his head to look at Jay, his cheeks turning a light pink as they sang, “ _And I’ve never had someone, as good for me as you, no one like you. So lonely before I finally found… What I’ve been looking for._ ”

They stared at each other as Jane played through until the end of the song, both of them breaking out into a grin.

“Wow, that’s nice,” Jay said to Jane, but not taking his eyes off of Carlos.

Suddenly a voice from the back of the room called out, “Williams, De Vil – you have a callback.” Jay and Carlos stared at each other with wide eyes, Carlos’ expression mixed with excitement while Jay’s was mixed with fear. “Jane, give them the duet from the second act. Work on it with them.”

Jane’s eyes lit up as she quickly shuffled through her sheet music, ecstatic to be able to work with someone that wasn’t as much of a bitch as Audrey.

Carlos took the sheet music that was handed to him and was absolutely beaming, this was the happiest that he had ever been, and he would be damned if he wouldn’t find a way to please his mother and have a life of his own.

Jay took the sheet music numbly, sensing that the next couple weeks were going to be the most complicated of his life.


	5. Stick to the Status Quo

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Warning: this is where we start to kinda delve into the issues with Carlos and his Mom, and that might be uncomfortable or a trigger for some readers so I just thought I'd warn you beforehand!

Arnold and Minnie  
Callbacks Thursday 3:30 PM, Auditorium  
Doug Matthews & Audrey Matthews  
Carlos De Vil & Jay Williams

“WHAT?” Audrey screamed as she saw the callback list, this couldn’t possibly be right, “But they didn’t even audition!”

Mal saw the wonder twins arguing over something and laughed as she walked up to them and asked, “What’s wrong?” She took a look at the sheet they were huddled around and her grin slid from her face. When the hell did Jay decide to do that? Mal’s face hardened as she marched off to find Jay, Audrey huffed and marched off in the opposite direction, and a crowd started to gather around the slip of paper that revealed that the school’s tourney star was more than he seemed.

 

* * *

 

“Why is everyone staring at you?” Carlos asked as he looked at Evie.

“Not me,” Evie replied, “You.”

“What why? Because of the callbacks? I can’t have people staring at me I really can’t I-” Carlos started rambling as he walked backwards to face Evie. He wasn’t looking where he was going, and with a slight misstep his lunch was being hurled off of his tray to land behind him, on Audrey.

“Argh!” Audrey screamed as she glared down at Carlos, “Watch where you’re going _freak_!”

Carlos tried to help get some of the food chunks that were still stuck to her shirt, but Evie took Carlos in her arms and steered him away from Audrey and out of the cafeteria.

Jay had seen what happened and was about to go to Carlos when Mal put a hand on his shoulder and said, “You do not want to get into that, man. Too much drama.”

“Yeah,” Jay said as he tried to find Carlos in the crowd, to no avail.

“What is going on here?” Ms. Fair demanded.

Audrey looked down on herself and smirked before donning a look of helplessness and saying, “Look at this! That Carlos boy just dumped his lunch on me! On purpose! Don’t you see? It’s all part of their plan to ruin our musical. And Jay and his tourney buddies are obviously behind it. Why do you think he auditioned?” She paused to summon up some fake tears as she said, “After all the hard work you’ve put into the show,” she let a tear fall down her face, “It just doesn’t seem right.”

And with a swish of a shirt and a flip of her hair, Audrey dried her eyes and headed for her locker for a change of clothes. Ms. Fair following her exit as she went to find Coach Jenkins.

Jay looked at Mal’s face and could tell that something was wrong so he asked, “Hey, what’s up?”

“What’s up?” Mal said, obviously pissed at something, “Oh, let’s see… You missed free-period workout to audition for some stupid musical. And now suddenly everyone feels like they need to confess things! Chad,” Mal gestured in his direction, “Is baking! Don’t you see what’s happening? Our team is falling apart because of your singing thing. The drama geeks and the brainiacs suddenly think that they can… talk to us!” Jay looked around the cafeteria as Mal continued, “The stoners are mingling, and suddenly people think that they can do other stuff. Stuff that’s not their stuff!” Mal stood up as she hissed, “They’ve got you thinking about show tunes, when we’ve got a playoff game next week.”

Mal grabbed her tourney stick and stormed out of the cafeteria, resisting the urge to hit something.

 

* * *

 

“Carlos it’s okay! It’ll be alright,” Evie whispered as she held the crying boy in her arms. Evie had led them to an empty classroom; one that she knew would remain vacant next period, and had barely shut the door before Carlos had burst into tears. He crumpled to the floor and leaned against the door, Evie quickly locking it and kneeling down beside him and taking him into her arms.

“I’m sorry I just-” Carlos tried to explain between sobs, “I don’t know why I’m so upset.”

“Shh,” Evie whispered as she stroked his hair and back, “It’s okay. You have nothing to be sorry for Carlos, it’s okay.”

Except Carlos _did_ know why he was so upset, it was because when Audrey had glared and yelled down at him he was reminded of his mother. The insults that she would constantly hurl at him… _Loser_ … _Worthless_ … _Dog_ … _Freak_ … they all kept echoing in his head as Evie held him. He finally accepted then, on the floor of some random classroom, that he hated his mother, he hated that she could do this to him while still making him yearn for her approval, he hated how she had made him hate himself for years, and most of all he hated how he still cared for her.

He hadn’t realized he’s been speaking until Evie whispered, “Carlos, who do you hate? Audrey?”

Carlos froze, he didn’t want to lie to Evie but he also didn’t want her to be worried about him. He sat up as he brushed his hands over his eyes, trying to regain at least some of his composure before he told her.

“No… no Audrey was just mad that her clothes were ruined…” Carlos murmured as he stared at the floor.

“Then… who?” Evie asked tentatively, reaching out a hand to rest over Carlos’.

Carlos didn’t answer; instead he took his hand from underneath Evie’s as he removed his jacket.

“Carlos what…?” Evie fell silent when she saw the bruise on Carlos’ left arm, one that had easily been covered by his jacket.

“My mother,” he spat out, “I hate. My mother.”

Evie gasped as she reached out to trace a bruise, looking up at Carlos to see fresh tears pooling in the corners of his eyes. She reached out to pull Carlos into a hug, wrapping her arms around his neck as he tugged her against him.

“She’s my mom,” he whispered as tears streamed down his face, “How can I hate my mom?”

Evie could feel her own eyes burning as she squeezed him even tighter, turning her head to whisper, “It’s okay Carlos. It’s okay we’ll- we’ll figure something out.”

Evie and Carlos sat in the classroom throughout the lunch hour, the silence only broken by the sound of their sobs.

 

* * *

 

Ms. Fair made her way through the boys’ locker room, looking straight ahead as she quickly made her way to Coach Jenkins’ office.

“All right, cards on the table right now,” Ms. Fair said as she walked through the door.

“Huh?” Coach Jenkins grunted.

“You’re mad because I put your stars in detention and now you’re getting even,” Ms. Fair said firmly.

“What are you talking about, Fair?” Coach asked, honestly confused as to why the woman was in his office.

“Your team’s captain showed up at my audition. Now, I give every student an even chance, which is a long and honourable tradition in the theater. Something that _you_ wouldn’t understand. But, if he is planning some sort of practical joke…” Ms. Fair had gradually been picking up steam, finally letting out all of her frustrations with the coach, when he cut in.

“Wait, Jay? Jay doesn’t even sing,” Coach said.

“Oh, well, you’re very wrong about that,” Ms. Fair replied, “But I will not allow my Twinkle Town musicale to be made into a farce.”

“Hold on, _Twinkle_ _Town_?” Coach Jenkins asked, trying to hold back a laugh.

Ms. Fair narrowed her eyes as she exclaimed, “See? I knew it. I knew it!” She turned around and stormed out of his office, glaring at the students that had gathered around the office windows.

Coach Jenkins stopped trying to hold back his laughter as he called out, “Hey, it sounds like a winner! Good luck on Broadway!” The he leaned back in his chair as he took a bite of his sandwich, and flipped to the next page in his paper.

 

* * *

 

Audrey opened her locker so she could quickly change into something that wasn’t covered is sauce, when she saw someone lean up against the locker beside her out of the corner of her eye.

“Hey Audrey,” Chad started off, “I thought since Jay’s gonna be in your show…”

“Jay Williams is not in my show,” Audrey snapped as she held out a hand to shut the boy up.

“Okay, um… well I was thinking maybe you could come watch me in tourney sometime.” Chad blurted out.

Audrey smiled down at the floor before looking up at Chad through her eyelashes as she sweetly said, “I’d rather stick pins, _in my eyes_.”

Chad’s expression turned to one of confusion as he asked, “But wouldn’t that be awfully uncomfortable?”

“Evaporate, tall person!” Audrey snapped, before slamming her locker shut and walking away.

“I bake!” Chad called out to her, “If that helps…” he murmured.

Chad leaned his head back against the locker and sighed, wondering why he was never able to say the right thing.

 

* * *

 

Evie had used her makeup expertise to help Carlos after their crying session at lunch, and he was surprised when Evie held up her mirror and he saw himself looking almost exactly the same as he had that morning.

“How did you…?” Carlos asked, truly baffled by what the girl could do with concealer.

“Some people believe in magic, others believe in science… I believe that just the right amount of concealer can fix any problem!” Evie smiled as she walked with Carlos to his locker, wanting to stay by his side for as long as possible. She had promised him that she wouldn’t tell anyone about his mother, not yet at least, because he had said he wanted to try and deal with it on his own first. While she had been completely against the idea, she had agreed to give him a week to try and sort things out; then she was calling the cops.

“Well I know what I believe in,” Carlos said as he glanced at Evie.

“What?” Evie inquired.

“I believe in Evie Carson! The best makeup artist in all the land!” He proclaimed as he held his arms out beside him, causing a laugh from Evie.

Carlos reached his locker and turned his lock, surprised when he opened it and a slip of paper fell to the ground.

“What’s that?” Evie asked.

“I don’t know,” Carlos replied as he bent over to pick it up.

Roses are Red, Violets are Blue  
I think this is the Start of Something New  
Meet me on the roof?  
\- J

“Oh my god!” Evie squealed as she read the note over Carlos’ shoulder. Carlos’ heart sped up at the thought of meeting Jay, it would be the first time that they’d be completely alone, and he was terrified.

Carlos whirled around to face Evie as he said, “Promise you won’t tell him!”

“What?” Evie said, “Carlos you-”

“No, Evie. I can’t have him hear it from someone else; it needs to come from me… please?” Carlos grabbed Evie’s hands and held them in his own, begging her to accept his wishes.

Evie sighed as she said, “Look, Carlos, I’ll make you a compromise,” Carlos started to frown as Evie continued, “I promise not to tell him, but you have to tell him today. On the roof, or I swear to all that is holy that I will lock you in a closet with Jay until you do!”

Carlos inhaled sharply at Evie’s threat, reminded of his mother’s last punishment. He saw Evie’s look so he whispered, “My mom locks me in her closet if I misbehave…”

Evie’s eyes widened as her hand flew up to her mouth, “Oh Carlos I’m, I’m sorry that’s not what I meant I-”

“I know,” Carlos whispered as he breathed in and out deeply, “I know that’s not what you meant, it just happened somewhat recently is all. It’s an honest mistake.”

Evie smiled sadly as she said, “Just… tell him Carlos. I may not know Jay personally, but out of all the guys on the tourney team he seems to be one of the good ones. Trust me.”

Carlos nodded as he shut his locker and walked down the hallway with Evie, only parting ways once they had reached a sign marked ROOF ACCESS.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> It's a cliffhanger! Sorry, I know you all probably hate me for that... but I have an amazing idea for the next chapter and I am confident (and a little hopeful) that it is worth the wait!


	6. Did I Mention

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Disclaimer: I still don't own these characters.

Jay had been up on the roof for 15 minutes, and was beginning to wonder if Carlos wouldn’t show, maybe he didn’t stop at his locker before his next class, when he heard footsteps coming up the stairs. He leaned over the balcony to see the black and white hair he loved so much, and smiled when he saw Carlos turn to look at him.

“Oh my god… it’s like a jungle up here!” Carlos exclaimed as he looked around him. Everywhere he looked there were flowers of all colours and sizes.

“Yeah, just like the cafeteria,” Jay replied.

Carlos tried to keep his voice casual as he joked, “Well, I just humiliated myself into the next century.” Carlos moved to where Jay was leaning again the railing, putting his hands on it to steady himself.

“No! Come on, that’ll all blow over by tomorrow,” Jay reassured him as he put his hand over top of Carlos’.

Carlos blushed but didn’t move his hand as he asked, “So this is your private hideout?”

“Yup, thanks to the science club. Which means my buddies don’t even know it exists,” Jay smiled, as one of his fingers casually stroked the back of Carlos’ hand.

“You pretty much have this school wired, don’t you Jay? It seems to me like everyone on campus wants to be your friend.” Carlos mused.

Jay gave a bitter laugh as he said, “Yeah, unless we lose.”

“It must be difficult being captain,” Carlos said, looking into Jay’s eyes.

“It makes me practice a little harder I guess,” Jay said as he looked away, still resting his hand over Carlos’.

“What do you think your parents will say when they find out about the singing?” Carlos asked.

Jay looked back at Carlos, seeming to mull something over before saying, “Probably the same way they reacted when I told them I was bi.”

Carlos furrowed his brow as he asked, “Okay… is that a good thing or a bad thing?”

“A good thing,” Jay whispered, “It’s a very good thing.”

Carlos interlocked his and Jay’s fingers and pulled him to sit down on the bench behind them, not letting go of his hand as he said, “Tell me.”

Jay sighed and ran his free hand over his face, took a deep breath and said, “It was about a year ago. It was the annual winter break party that the kids here throw, it’s sort of… welcomes you back to school, you know?” Carlos didn’t know, but nodded as Jay continued, “I had had a little too much to drink, though I guess when you’re underage a little bit is still too much, and somehow ended up making out with a random guy in the bathroom. Once I realized what I was doing I got the hell out of there, stopped drinking so much at things like that… But I knew from that day on that I liked guys and girls, the same way that some people just like guys or just like girls.”

Carlos remained silent, thinking that there was more to the story and not wanting to do anything that could cause Jay to clam up.

“My parents found out because the guy that I made out with, well his parents golf with my parents. I assume it was a pretty interesting 18 holes after the guy’s father said, ‘So my son tells me your boy is a good kisser?’ My dad still gets a kick out of telling that story at parties.”

Carlos smiled as he said, “Wow, that sounds… wonderful. I’m happy for you.”

Jay looked at Carlos and asked, “What about you?”

“What about me?” Carlos hesitated, already knowing what was coming next.

Jay looked down at their hands, and then back up to Carlos as he said, “Well, correct me if I am getting mixed signals, but I’m guessing that you aren’t exactly straight…?”

Carlos took a deep breath and closed his eyes, squeezing Jay’s hand as he huffed out, “I’m gay.” Jay smiled at Carlos when he opened his eyes, wanting to make the boy feel comfortable with him. Jay was about to say something when Carlos murmured, “You’re the first person that I’ve told.”

Jay’s jaw dropped, he thought back to how Carlos had acted at New Year’s and throughout the first couple days of school and realized that he had never explicitly said he was gay. Jay’s face must’ve looked confused because Carlos chuckled softly and said, “I just never had the need to. I’ve been moving around pretty constantly since I was really little, so I’ve never gotten close enough with anyone for that to be relevant. And my mom… let’s just say she wouldn’t be as accepting as your parents.”

Jay frowned and drew Carlos into a hug; Carlos tensed at first, but then relaxed as he slowly reached up to wrap his arms around Jay’s back. Jay started rubbing slow circles on Carlos’ back, something that his parents had always done when he was little to calm him down, and started humming the tune to a song that his mom had always sang to him. He heard muffled words against his chest and laughed, moving so Carlos’ face wasn’t being smooshed.

“Sorry, what was that?” Jay asked as he let out a chuckle.

“What are you humming?” Carlos asked.

“Oh, it’s just a song my mom used to sing to me… if it bothers you I can stop…” Jay murmured.

“No, no it’s fine, it sounds nice… does it have words?” Carlos asked sleepily.

“Yes,” Jay answered.

“Could you, could you sing it for me?” Carlos asked, hoping he hadn’t asked too much of Jay.

Jay was grinning from ear to ear as he whispered, “Sure.”

Carlos snuggled in closer to Jay, bringing about a deep blush on Jay’s face, and Jay started to softly sing like his mother, “ _Did I mention that I’m in love with you? Did I mention there’s nothing I can do? Did I happen to say I dream of you every day? Let me shout it out loud if that’s okay…_ ” Jay looked down at the boy in his arms, ultimately realizing that he never wanted to let him go, “ _I met this boy who rocked my world like it’s never been rocked, now I’m living just for him and I won’t ever stop, I never thought that it would happen to a guy like me, but honey look at what you’ve done, you’ve got me down on my knees. Because my love for you is ridiculous, I never knew that love could feel like this, my love for you is ridiculous, and I would give a kingdom for just one kiss…_ ”

Carlos’ smile grew wider and wider, until he was positively beaming, he felt tears run down his cheeks as Jay reached the end of the song, and cursed himself for what he was about to do.

Jay pulled back from Carlos when he heard a sniffle, “Carlos what’s wrong?”

Carlos pulled away from Jay and let go of his hand, leaving Jay feeling cold where Carlos had once been. Carlos looked down at his hands and mumbled, “Jay, I have to tell you something.”

Jay fell silent at Carlos’ tone and nodded his head, mumbling, “Yeah, all right,” when he realized that Carlos wasn’t looking at him to see him nod.

Carlos’ breathing came faster as he tugged off his jacket, shivering when the cool air hit his skin. He put his jacket on the bench as he stood up, grabbing the back of his shirt to pull it off of him, and threw that on the bench too. He stared at his shoes, refusing to look back at Jay even when he heard him gasp quietly, he had thought that after Evie this would be easy, but he had thought wrong.

“Carlos… who…?” Jay muttered as he took in the sight before him. Bruises, new and old, covered his torso. He saw scratches around his sides, some that seemed to have turned into scars, and there were a couple of circular burn marks closer to his neck. None of this could be seen when he was covered however, all of the injuries being perfectly placed so that they could be covered with articles of clothing. He finally took in the fresh mark on his left bicep, no more than a day or two old, and stood up to stand in front of the smaller boy.

Jay tilted Carlos’ head up to look at him. “Carlos,” Jay whispered, tears threatening to spill over, “Who did this to you?”

Carlos saw the anguish in Jay’s eyes, and he was struck by the raw emotion his wounds had brought out of the older boy. Tears were now steadily flowing down his face as he choked out, “My mother.”

Jay’s face hardened at Carlos’ words, immediately thankful that he had watched ‘1000 Ways to Die’ when he was younger so he could imagine Carlos’ mom suffocating in a helium balloon or getting electrocuted by Christmas lights.

“Carlos you need to get out of there, hell you need to call the cops!” Jay said as he reached into his back pocket for his phone, but Carlos stopped him.

“No!” he yelled, causing Jay to flinch. Carlos smiled sheepishly as he lowered his voice and said, “Not, not yet okay? If I have to worry about getting taken away from my only family on top of everything else my head might explode.”

Jay furrowed his brow and was about to argue when Carlos added, “Look, I already made a deal with Evie. She’s giving me a week to try and sort this out by myself, after that she has my full permission to do what she deems fit. Does that seem fair?”

Jay frowned down at the boy, not okay with any deal that put him at risk for more bruises, but decided that he could make it through a week before launching Carlos’ mother into the Sun.

“Okay, fine, but I swear if I see _one_ new bruise show up on your body I’m calling the cops. I don’t give a shit if it happens in 4 days, 3 days; fuck if it happens _tonight_ I’m calling the cops on her ass.”

Carlos’ eyes widened at Jay’s statement, surprised at how much he cared for him despite only knowing him for a little over a week.

“Okay, deal,” Carlos agreed, moving away from Jay to put his shirt and jacket back on.

While Carlos’ back was to him Jay wrapped his arms around the boy’s waist, resting his head on his shoulder as he whispered, “You know, the only reason I’m agreeing to this is so I can see you shirtless every day for the next week.”

Carlos smiled as he leaned back into him, “Hmm… that doesn’t seem fair. You get to see me shirtless but I don’t get to see you?”

Jay moved his lips closer to Carlos’ ear as he answered, “Do you _want_ to see me shirtless for the next week?”

Carlos smirked and said, “I wanna see you shirtless for the next _month_.”

Jay chuckled as he turned Carlos around, running his fingers through his blonde locks as he leaned down to rest his forehead on his. After a few moments he pressed a kiss to Carlos’ forehead, pulling away to say, “How about we get through this week first? Then we can start worrying about the shirtless inequality in our relationship.”

“Relationship?” Carlos asked, surprise evident on his face.

Jay stammered as he replied, “Erm, well yeah I mean… I mean if you want…”

“Yes,” Carlos said simply, giving Jay a smile that made his heart skip a beat.

Jay smiled as he leaned down, tilting Carlos’ chin up, moving in closer before-

BRRRRIIIIIIIIIIIIIIING!

“Shit! If I’m late for class I could get another detention! And last time…” Carlos trailed off as he looked to his left bicep.

Jay eyes widened as he grabbed their things and said, “Then move your ass! No way in hell will I let another bad thing happen to you on my watch.”

And with a quick kiss on the cheek, Jay grabbed his and Carlos’ backpacks and hurried him down the stairs and out of sight.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Just so you know I DO NOT condone waiting for a friend to figure stuff out if they are in an abusive situation, but in order for the story to make sense I had to write it this way. If you ever know someone who's being abused please TELL SOMEONE.
> 
> And please comment what you think! I always love hearing feedback so don't be shy! :)


	7. Believe

Jay was fuming for the rest of the day, continuously imagining ways to torture the cause of Carlos' pain, when he saw a flash of blue hair up ahead of him. He quickly maneuvered through the crowd until he was right beside her, leaning down so only she could hear and whispered, “We need to talk. _Now_.”

Evie had been on her way to the library to study for her Chem exam during free period, but at Jay’s tone she conceded that what he wanted to talk about was infinitely more important than the difference between organic and inorganic compounds, and followed him into a nearby classroom.

“What do you want to talk about, Jay?” Evie asked, already certain she knew the answer but wanting to make sure.

“What do you _think_?” Jay hissed, letting some of his anger slip out, “I want to talk about how Carlos is being _abused_ and _you_ thought it was a good idea to _wait_ a week before calling the cops!”

Evie shushed him and brought a hand up to cover his mouth, certain that someone would be able to hear them through the walls if Jay continued to get any louder.

“Shh! Not so loud! You know how badly Carlos wants this to be kept secret!” Evie whispered.

Jay grimaced as Evie took her hand away, “Sorry,” he mumbled.

“And before you start ranting again,” Evie said, taking out her phone, “I want you to read something.”

She opened up her browser and clicked on a page she had bookmarked during her last class, it was only fashion studies and she could pass that in her sleep, so one period of worrying about Carlos wouldn’t make much of a difference. She handed her phone to Jay and waited for him to comprehend what her plan was, smirking when his eyebrows shot up and his jaw dropped.

“You think… you think this’ll work?” Jay murmured, handing Evie’s phone back to her.

“I’m not sure,” Evie admitted, “But I know my parents, and I know how persuasive I can be… Right now I think it’s the best chance we’ve got.”

Jay clenched his eyes shut, still angry that Carlos had to go home to that dreadful woman, even if it was just for a week. He let out a slow breath and said, “Okay, I’m willing to wait a week for you to do this. But afterwards, I’m sticking to my promise. I’m calling the fucking cops.”

“Oh, I am in complete agreement on that my friend,” Evie replied, “But for now, just keep Carlos busy. Do the callbacks with him, encourage him to participate in the scholastic decathlon, even invite him to tourney practice, just try and get him to stay at the school for as long as he can. We might be stupid enough to wait a week, but we can at least try and make him so busy it just flies by.”

“Ugh, okay… But you better talk to your parents _tonight_ ,” Jay demanded.

“Oh, don’t worry,” Evie said, “Once I’m through with them, they’ll be thinking that it was their idea instead of mine.”

And with a quick nod and the shaking of hands, Evie and Jay exited the classroom.

 

* * *

 

“Hey, do you wanna come with me to paint sets?” Jay asked Carlos as he walked up to his locker.

“I thought you had practice?” Carlos asked.

“It’s been cancelled,” Jay lied easily as he gave Carlos a smile, “So I was thinking we could actually hang out for a bit…? If that’s okay with your…”

“Mother?” Carlos finished for him, “Yeah, it should be. I mean, I told her that I was on the scholastic decathlon team and that we meet every single day after school, so I have until then before I need to get home.”

“I thought she didn’t like you being involved in things?” Jay asked, confused.

“Only if they aren’t school related,” Carlos explained, “So a science team is completely fine with her. The fact that she doesn’t know we only meet three times a week… well what she doesn’t know won’t hurt her.” Carlos tried to give Jay a smile, but it didn’t quite reach his eyes. Jay reached down to take one of Carlos’ hands in his and give it a small squeeze.

“Hey, I promise that you are going to be okay,” Jay whispered.

Carlos gave a small shudder as he let out a breath and said, “Yeah… yeah, okay I’ll come paint sets with you!”

“Great! Follow me,” Jay said as he led Carlos to the auditorium, his hand never letting go of Carlos’.

 

* * *

 

After an hour of painting sets, Jay decided that he was going to walk Carlos home, there had actually been a lot to do so they didn’t have much of a chance to talk to each other, and Jay wanted to cherish every moment he had with this boy.

They walked hand in hand out of the school, cutting across the tourney field to get to Carlos’ house faster, but when they were halfway across Jay felt Carlos stop beside him. He turned to look at him, confusion evident on his face.

Carlos looked around at the field and said, “So, this is your real stage?”

Jay laughed and said, “Yeah, something like that.”

“You know, I once scored 41 points in a championship game,” Carlos boasted.

Jay’s eyebrows shot up as he said, “No way!”

“Uh huh,” Carlos smirked, “And in the same day, I invented the space shuttle and microwave popcorn.”

Jay looked down at the smiling boy and laughed, reaching up to trace his jawline with his finger as he whispered, “You’re hilarious.” Carlos leaned into the touch and sighed, his eyes closing as he relaxed into Jay’s palm. Jay moved his right hand until it was on the back of Carlos’ neck, his other hand slowly intertwining with Carlos’. Carlos opened his eyes when he felt Jay’s breath on his face, surprised that he was now so close, but shut them as he leaned up to close the distance between them and capture Jay’s mouth with his.

It was nothing fancy, just the briefest touch as Jay resisted the urge to take it any further, but this was their first real kiss, and Jay wanted it to be special.

Too soon Carlos pulled away, Jay actually following his lips as he did, and they rested their foreheads against one another’s.  Jay sighed and closed his eyes, blissfully aware that even after a fair amount of steamy make out sessions, none of his past kisses could even come close to measuring up to this chaste kiss with Carlos.

“That was my first kiss,” Carlos murmured, his faint blush deepening in embarrassment.

Jay pulled back slightly to look in Carlos’ eyes as he asked, “What?”

Carlos looked down, now almost the colour of a tomato, and said, “That was, that was my first kiss. Ever.”

Jay brings the hand that was resting on Carlos’ neck to his chin, tilting his head up as he asks, “How is that even possible… You’re gorgeous.”

Jay didn’t think it was possible, but Carlos flushes an even deeper shade of crimson, somewhere between smiling and crying as he whispers, “Thank you.”

“For what?” Jay asks.

“Just… thank you,” Carlos replies, not even sure himself why Jay’s words meant so much to him.

“Come on,” Jay said as he tugged Carlos along with him, “Let’s get you home.”

And with the occasional glance at the other, both boys made their way across the field, only parting ways when they were forced to head for their own homes.

 

* * *

 

“Okay tell me, what spell has this elevated IQ temptress guy cast that suddenly makes you miss practice?” Mal whispered. She and Jay were in the library, Jay looking for books on abuse, while Mal was using her time trying to convince Jay that he was being crazy.

“Look, I just did it! Who cares?” He whispered, turning down another aisle after the first one ended up having nothing.

“Who cares? How about your best fucking friend?” Mal whispered, “You’re a tourney star, not a musical singer… person.”

“Did you ever think that maybe I could be both?” Jay whispered as he turned to glare at Mal, her antics had been getting on his last nerve and he was really resisting the urge to deck her with her own tourney stick.

Mal spluttered as Jay headed down a third aisle, hurrying after him as she asked, “Have you ever seen Michael Crawford on a cereal box?”

“Who’s Michael Crawford?” Jay said distractedly, finally looking up and seeing an entire section on abuse.

“Exactly my point! He was the Phantom of the Opera on Broadway. Now my mom has seen that musical _27 times_ , and she has a picture of the guy in our refrigerator. Yeah, not on it, _in it_ ,” Mal took her tourney stick and batted Jay on the head with it as she finished, “My point is, if you play tourney, you’re gonna end up on a cereal box. If you sing in musicals, you’re gonna end up in my mom’s refrigerator.”

“But why would she put his photo in your fridge? That makes no sense,” Jay said as he took a couple books off the shelf and heading towards the check-out desk.

“Look I don’t know, I think it was one of her crazy diet ideas. I don’t attempt to understand my mother Jay, it’s foreign territory.” Mal whispered as she followed him.

“Look, Mal,” Jay snapped as he whirled around to face her, “I don’t have time for this, okay? Believe it or not, there are some things in this world that are more important that tourney.”

Mal stood frozen to the floor, Jay checking out his books and leaving her there, the gears turning in her head as she tried to figure out what Jay meant. She scowled as she made her way to where Jay had picked out his books, her scowl quickly turned to one of confusion as she looked at the books there.

 _Little Prisoners_ … _The Abuse of Innocence_ … _How to Overcome_ … Mal gasped as she realized what was going on, immediately feeling like shit. She ran out of the library to search for Jay, but couldn’t find him anywhere.

After searching everywhere that she could think of she pulled out her phone and texted,

_We need to talk. I know._

She hit send and headed home, knowing that she was going to get Jay to explain himself if it was the last thing she’d ever do.

 

* * *

 

Jay looked down at his message from Mal; his heart plummeted as he read it. She _knew_ , knew what? About Carlos? He thought back to the library, not thinking that Mal was paying close enough attention to see what books he had picked out. He sighed as he ran a hand over his face, he knew better than to underestimate her, he had made that mistake before and ended up getting a wedgie that had him walking funny for a week.

He switched off his phone and continued home, feeling his library books hit his back as he adjusted his backpack, knowing that tonight his attention was needed elsewhere.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Oooh what does Mal know?
> 
> Thanks for sticking with this story for so long my amazing readers! For anyone wondering we have already passed the halfway point so there will probably only be 3 or 4 more chapters! Please leave comments guys! I always like to know what you're thinking! :)


	8. When There Was Me And You

Jay had barely stepped off of the school bus when he felt himself being yanked to the side, almost falling over as he struggled to regain his balance. He looked in front of him to see Mal leading him towards the back of the school, obviously wanting to speak privately if she would risk entering stoner territory. Thankfully when they turned around to the back, the place was deserted, though Mal quickly scanned the area for any signs of life before whirling around to face him.

“How could you not tell me?” Mal practically screamed as she punched Jay in the shoulder.

“Ouch!” Jay winced as he rubbed his shoulder, “Why are you so mad? It not really in any position to tell anyone-”

“No position? Jay I’m your _best friend_ , you can tell me if you’re being abused!” Mal yelled.

“Wait, what?” Jay asked, his look of confusion turning into recognition as he said, “Mal I’m not being abused.”

“Then why were you checking out all those books on abuse? Jay I know when you’re hiding something, I just thought that we were close enough that you could tell me anyth-” Mal took on a look of hurt when Jay interrupted her.

“Mal! I’m not being abused, Carlos is!” Jay shouted, immediately gasping and covering his mouth with his hand at what he just said.

“What…?” Mal asked, her eyes widening as Jay slumped down against the side of the school.

“No, no, no… Shit you weren’t supposed to hear that…” Jay muttered as he put his face in his hands. He hadn’t even been thinking about the consequences of his words, he had just wanted to make Mal shut up so badly… how was Carlos ever going to forgive him?

Mal sat down beside Jay and put a hand on his shoulder as she said, “Jay, Jay look at me.” Jay looked over at Mal, his face had turned into one of pure horror, and if the situation were less serious, it would’ve made Mal laugh. “I _promise_ you that I won’t tell anyone, but you have to tell me what’s going on.”

And so, leaving out the details that he felt were only for his ears, Jay told Mal about why he had been spending so much time with Carlos lately. After he was finished he waited for Mal to say something, thinking that it could take her a bit to process the information, so he was surprised when he heard her speak after only a couple of seconds.

“We have to go find Evie,” Mal said as she stood up.

Jay looked up and asked, “Why?”

Mal looked down and said, “Do you even listen to your own stories? You said that Evie was going to ask her parents last night! So…” Mal trailed off as she waited for Jay to catch up.

Jay bolted to his feet as he exclaimed, “We have to know what they said!”

“Ding! Ding! Ding! Give the man a prize!” Mal clapped as she started heading towards the school doors.

Jay ran to catch up with her and swatted at her head, in a much happier mood now that he had his best friend back.

 

* * *

 

“What’d they say?” Jay asked as he approached Evie, not even waiting for her to turn around to pose the question.

Evie turned around to see Jay and… Mal? She looked from Mal’s face to Jay’s, giving him a confused look as she answered, “I don’t know what you mean, Jay.”

“I know,” Mal said, not unkindly, “And no, I won’t tell anyone, I haven’t told anyone, and I care because I’m a decent human being. I don’t have to know the guy to want him to get away from that bitch he calls a mother.”

Evie’s eyes widened at Mal’s harsh words, but decided that if Jay trusted her than she could too.

“Follow me,” Evie said, not wanting to have this conversation where anyone could listen in. She turned a corner and found the class she was looking for, it was a science lab that wouldn’t be in use that morning because all the Biology classes had a final in the library. Once inside she closed the door and waited a beat before saying, “I’ll tell you, but I need to know what she knows.”

Mal raised an eyebrow and was about to say something snarky when Jay said, “She knows what you know, all right?”

Evie nodded stiffly, accepting that Mal was now a part of this whether she liked it or not.

“So what’d they say?” Jay asked.

“They said they’d think about it,” Evie replied.

“What? Why don’t they have an answer now, Carson?” Mal demanded.

“Because it’s a big decision, Wright!” Evie snapped, “Do you think _your_ parents would agree quicker? If so than you ask them yourself!”

Mal crossed her arms and her mouth turned up into a smirk as she said, “Damn, so the kitty’s got claws?”

Evie’s eyes went wide and she moved towards Mal when Jay shouted, “Guys! This is not helping!”

Mal and Evie’s heads snapped in his direction as he lowered his voice and said, “Fighting won’t help Carlos. Evie, Mal’s my best friend. I didn’t mean to tell her about this, it just slipped out, but now that she knows she has a right to help. And Mal, Evie is Carlos’ best friend. She has more of a right than you to be here so for once, don’t offer your opinion unless asked. Got it?”

They both looked down at their feet as they muttered, “Got it.”

“What was that?” Jay asked.

“We got it!” Mal said, “Now what are we doing about Carlos?”

“My parents said I have to be 100% sure that I know what to expect if we go through with this, so I was planning on writing a list of pros and cons during free period… but I can do that easily, I’m sure that by tonight I’ll have a definitive answer,” Evie trailed off as her brain started going 1000 miles an hour, already thinking of a million different ways that her plan would be beneficial to her and her family.

“Alright,” Jay said, “We’ll each go through today trying to make Carlos happy, or at least act normal. We promised we’d wait a week to do something so he might not be too happy if he finds out about this.”

“I think he’d understand,” Evie said, “But I think it would be better if we waited… sort of like a surprise.”

“Well it’s not like I even see the guy much,” Mal said, “But yeah, I’ll keep quiet.”

“Then we’re agreed?” Jay asked, looking at the two girls, “Then let’s get this party started.” He grabbed his backpack and headed out of the class, Evie and Mal following close behind him.

 

* * *

 

“What do you think they’re doing in there?” Audrey asked, looking through the window to the class where Mal, Evie, and Jay were.

“I don’t know… Maybe they’re trying to figure out a way to actually beat us!” Doug exclaimed.

“Oh my god, you’re right! If Jay has control over the jock and theatre population, he rules the school…” Audrey realized.

“And if that Carlos kid is friends with the nerds and the drama geeks… he’d rule the other half… together they’re unstoppable,” Doug trailed off as Evie flipped her hair, suddenly forgetting why they were mad at them in the first place.

“Doug? Snap out of it!” Audrey snapped as she hit her brother, “Come on, we need to go save our show from the people who don’t know the difference between a Tony Award, and Tony Hawk.”

And just like that, Audrey and Doug made their way to the auditorium to find Ms. Fair.

 

* * *

 

Carlos wasn’t sure what he expected when he had tried to talk to his mother the night before, but he certainly didn’t expect her laughing at him.

He had tried to make her as happy as possible; he came home early, did all of his chores as fast as was humanly possible, and even massaged her feet and back before talking to her, hoping that her good mood would lessen a bad reaction.

“Hey, mom?” Carlos asked tentatively, “Could I tell you something?”

“Yes? What is it boy I don’t have all day,” Cruella snapped.

“Well it’s just… it’s that, I’m… I’m uh… mom I’m gay,” Carlos flinched, expecting a blow, but opened his eyes when none came. He looked up at his mother to see her blink twice, as if trying to clear her vision, before throwing her head back and bursting out laughing.

“HA! I knew there was something wrong with you! How could I have missed it?” Cruella shouted as she moved to the kitchen to pour herself another glass of wine.

Carlos had stayed rooted to the spot, shocked at his mother’s reaction. He was even more shocked, however, to his own reaction to her outburst, mainly the lack of one. Logically he knew that he should feel bad that his mother felt that he was broken, which she was currently yelling at him, but he couldn’t bring himself to care. He looked over at the woman in the kitchen and didn’t see his mother, the one who he had loved and cared for as a child, instead he saw a stranger, someone who had manipulated him into believing that she deserved his love but he didn’t deserve hers.

He had spent the night putting all of his things, though there wasn’t much, into a suitcase and boxes. He wasn’t going to run away, but he knew that it was only a matter of time before he left his mother, and he wanted to be ready if it happened sooner than he thought.

He shook his head as he walked into the school, heading straight for Jay’s secret hideaway so he could spend his free period in isolation, and was somewhat surprised to see Jay already up there. He was turned away from Carlos, not hearing him walk up the stairs, and was muttering to himself about something.

“God, I can’t believe that I let that slip out… I mean sure she’s your friend… your best friend… but honestly you should shut your trap when it comes to Carlos, enough people know what he’s going through and Mal being one of them is…” Jay stopped talking when he heard a gasp behind him, whirling around to see a wide-eyed Carlos staring at him.

“Mal knows?” Carlos asked.

“Shit, Carlos I’m sorry I didn’t mean for her to find out! I was just looking for books on abuse so I could help you better, but then Mal thought I was in trouble and she wouldn’t shut up so I just blurted it out and… I’m sorry,” Jay hung his head in his hands as he sat down on the bench, convinced that Carlos was going to hate him now.

But Carlos, well he had really only caught the part of Jay’s confession that said that he’d been in the library, to read books, _to help him_. Carlos couldn’t remember the last time that someone had gone out of their way to help him, his eyes started to water as he sat down on the bench beside Jay, a hand coming to rest on his shoulder as he whispered, “It’s okay.”

Jay looked up at Carlos and asked, “What?”

“It’s okay,” Carlos repeated, “I don’t care. I mean I don’t want many more people to know, but you trust Mal, and I trust you. That’s good enough for me.”

Jay was floored by Carlos, convinced that he could never do enough good in his life to deserve this boy. He sighed as he put an arm around Carlos’ shoulders and murmured, “Thank you.”

“For what?” Carlos asked.

“For being you,” Jay said, pulling away from Carlos. “Alright, you know the drill. Shirt. Off.” Jay smiled as he forced Carlos to stand up so he could take off his jacket.

“Nothing happened,” Carlos chuckled, removing his shirt anyway, “Actually, it’s weird…” Carlos grew silent as he watched Jay study him, waiting until he had his undivided attention before continuing.

Jay inspected Carlos all over, and after triple checking that there were no new marks, he threw Carlos’ shirt back at him as he asked, “What’s weird?”

“I don’t… feel for my mother,” Carlos replied.

“You don’t _feel_ for her? What do you mean by that?” Jay inquired.

“Exactly that. I mean, I don’t love her, but I don’t hate her either. It’s like a switch flipped last night and I could finally see her for who she really is, not who I dreamed she could be…” Carlos looked out at the rooftop as he continued, “It’s always been just her and I, and I think… I think I just confused the truth, with what I wanted to be real. I made excuses for her because I wanted to believe that she could change, I wanted to believe that she loved me.”

Jay pulled Carlos toward him, moving them so they were somehow lying on the bench, one of Jay’s legs hanging over the side so that they could fit.

“Now I know… she’s not a fairytale,” Carlos said, “But I can’t believe I was so blind! I mean, this has been going on for as long as I can remember… how could I not have realized that it was wrong?”

“We accept the love we think we deserve,” Jay whispered.

Carlos turned his head so he was looking into Jay’s eyes as he smirked and said, “Did you _seriously_ just quote ‘The Perks of Being a Wallflower’?”

“What? I read!” Jay said defensively, smiling down at Carlos as he laughed. “Plus,” Jay continued, “I needed to find some way to get you to smile, it’s the most beautiful thing about you.”

Carlos blushed as he sat back up, Jay sitting up along with him.

“Do you think there’s something wrong with me?” Carlos whispered, so quiet that Jay had to strain to hear him.

“Not in the slightest,” Jay replied, “You are the smartest, funniest, handsomest, and caring-est guy I’ve ever met. Not to mention the most stylish,” Jay added as he reached out to tug on Carlos’ collar.

“Caring-est?” Carlos raised an eyebrow.

“What? I said _I read_ , not _I_ _read_ _a_ _lot_ ,” Jay replied.

Carlos chuckled as he heard the first bell ring, standing up and grabbing his bag as he asked, “Do you have practice today?”

“Yup,” Jay replied, “You should come watch.”

“Really?” Carlos asked.

“Of course, what type of boyfriend would I be if I didn’t show off my new beau?” Jay grinned as he followed Carlos to the stairway.

“Boyfriend? Beau? Those are new words,” Carlos said as he looked up at Jay.

“Well, beau is a new word I learned from a short story we read in English so I can’t really take credit for that… but boyfriend is what I’d like to introduce you as, to people… that I know… if you’re okay with that?” Jay stammered as he struggled to get to the point.

“Of course,” Carlos said as he took Jay’s hand in his, “I will be your boyfriend.”

Jay leaned down to capture Carlos’ mouth in a kiss, moving closer as Carlos wrapped his arms around his neck. He was about to deepen the kiss when the warning bell rang, the both swore and grabbed their bags, once again sprinting for their next class.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Did anyone catch how some of the dialogue was like the lyrics to the song that this chapter is titled after? I kinda wanted to throw that in there so that it made sense, so instead of the title being for a breakup song between a Troy and Gabriella it's between Carlos and his mom!
> 
> And if you didn't realize that until now, that's cool! I'm probably one of the few who still knows all the lyrics to these songs.   
> :)


	9. Good is the New Bad

Arnold and Minnie  
~~Callbacks Thursday 3:30 PM, Auditorium~~  
Doug Matthews  & Audrey Matthews  
Carlos De Vil & Jay Williams

**CALLBACK AUDITIONS RESCHEDULED TO FRIDAY BEGINNING AT 3:30 PM**

Jay walked into school the next day with Carlos on his arm, thinking that the rest of the week would be the happiest of his life, when he caught a glimpse of Jane staring at the callback sheet. He hadn’t really known Jane before this past week, but after hours of rehearsing he concluded that she wasn’t as weird as everyone made her out to be, in fact she was really interesting to talk to. He now considered her his friend, which is why seeing her looking at the callback sheet sent his stomach plummeting to the ground.

“Callbacks the same time as the game?” Jay asked when he saw the list.

“And the scholastic decathlon,” Carlos said.

“Why would they do that?” Evie asked.

“I smell a rat named Fair,” spat Mal.

“Actually I think it’s two rats, neither of them named Fair,” Jane said as she scowled at the list.

“Do you know something about this,” Mal asked as she looked Jane up and down, “Small person?”

“Ms. Fair thinks she’s protecting the show, but Audrey and Doug are only concerned with protecting _themselves_ ,” Jane explained.

“Do you know what I’m gonna do to those two show dogs?” Mal threatened as Ben put a hand on her shoulder to try and calm her down.

“Nothing!” Jay said, “We’re not gonna do anything to them. Except sing, maybe.” Jay looked around at his friends, new and old, and continued, “Now this is only gonna happen if we all work together. Now who’s in?”

Evie and Mal looked at each other and smirked, both turning to look at Jay as they said, “We’re in.”

“Same here,” Ben said.

“Ditto,” Jane agreed.

“And of course, I’m in,” Carlos said as he smiled at Jay.

“All right then,” Jay said, “Let’s get to work.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry that this is so short, but I needed this filler chapter to happen before the big climax chapters! I'll try to update soon so you guys aren't left hanging! :)


	10. We're All in This Together

**GAME DAY**  
**CALLBACK DAY**  
**SCHOLASTIC DECATHLON DAY**  
**HELP!**

Carlos and Evie had been quietly discussing the plan before homeroom, when Jay, Ben, and Mal came rushing through the door. Their eyesight was instantly blocked as Jay covered Carlos’ eyes with his hands, and Mal covered Evie’s with hers.

“What’s going on?” Carlos asked, but was quickly shushed by someone behind him.

They heard some shuffling in front of them, and gasped when they opened their eyes to see a cake with a pi symbol on it with the words, ‘Support Brain Fame!’ written on it in icing.

“Oh my god thanks you guys!” Evie squealed as she threw her arms around Mal.

“It looks amazing,” Carlos whispered as he turned to look at Jay, who shrugged and pointed in Chad’s direction.

“It was all him,” he said.

They looked up to see Chad smiling down at them, thanking him profusely before standing up and making their way to the blackboard.

“We have something for you too…” Evie grinned as she trailed off and gestured towards a double white board.

The tourney team looked from the board, which was full of numbers and equations, to each other. Not wanting to be rude they quickly blurted out, “Thank you so much! It’s wonderful…” But then, with a giggle from Carlos and Evie, the duo quickly flipped the board around to see an enormous chalk drawing of a knight holding a tourney stick, with the words ‘Go Knights!’ written in block letters off to the side.

“Oh!” they all exclaimed, “Oh my gosh that’s amazing!”

Carlos walked over to Jay and kissed his cheek, “Thanks… babe?”

“Babe?” Jay asked.

“Just something I thought I’d try… if you don’t like it…” Carlos trailed off and looked off to the side, but Jay shook his head and shushed him.

“Hey now, don’t worry, I love it… babe,” Jay said with a wink, leaning down to give Carlos a chaste kiss on the lips as the first bell rang.

“Get a room you too!” Mal joked as she moved to sit on her desk.

“Maybe we will!” Carlos countered, causing Mal’s jaw to drop at the boy’s candor.

Carlos turned back to Jay to see a faint blush on his cheeks, smiling as he thought about all the times he had blushed because of something that Jay had said, and now the tables have turned.

“What’s wrong, _babe_? You’re looking flushed,” Carlos said as he reached a hand up to touch his forehead.

“I’m fine, _honey_. Just nervous for the championships is all,” Jay teased as he ushered Carlos to the back of the class.

“I didn’t know your face could turn that shade,” Carlos whispered with a smile.

“I didn’t know that you could be so blunt,” Jay said. _And hot_ , he thought, but kept that to himself as Ms. Fair entered the room.

“There are a lot of things you don’t know I can do,” Carlos said with a wink, causing Jay to blush even deeper as he moved to sit in his desk near the front of the class.

Ms. Fair, upon entering, looked from the Knight mural on the chalkboard to the rather large cake of pi on Evie’s desk and said, “Well, it looks like us Knights are in for an interesting afternoon.”

 

* * *

 

BRRRIIIIIIING!!!!!

The final bell rang, and everyone took a deep breath as they each prayed that their outrageous plan would work. Jay made his way to the locker room, with Mal, Ben and Chad following closely behind him. Carlos and Evie made their way to the science lab and started putting on lab coats and safety goggles, growing more and more nervous as parents kept piling into the small space. Audrey and Doug made their way to the auditorium, carrying the costumes that they were going to change into over their shoulders.

Evie was about to ask Carlos to hand her her notes when she heard him gasp beside her, she followed his gaze to the audience to see a woman with jet black hair with a white streak in it sit down beside her parents. She took in the black dress and the enormous coat and realized that she must be Carlos’ mother.

She turned to him as he whispered, “I didn’t know she was coming… I don’t know if I can do this, Evie-”

“Hey,” Evie interrupted, “Hey, listen to me. Tonight marks the one week mark you gave me, so no matter what happens today, you will _not_ be going home with her. Do you understand Carlos? You will _never_ have to go home to her _ever_ again.”

Carlos’ eyes widened as he stared at Evie, terror plain on his face, but quickly turned his face into a neutral mask as he nodded, knowing that after this week he could trust Evie with his life.

He looked back at his mother and gave her a small smile, which she returned in the presence of all these people. Cruella turned to the person next to her and said, “See that boy? That’s _my_ son, he’s an absolute genius… got onto the team within a week of being here!”

Evie saw her mother stiffen at something Cruella said, but she furiously shook her head when she saw her mother turn to say something to her. Her mom saw her and let out a breath, forcing out, “Really? That’s wonderful. He must be a darling son.”

“Oh, he is…” Cruella said as she turned back to Carlos, thinking about all the chores he was going to do for her once they were home.

“Everything will work out fine,” Evie muttered to herself, distracting herself by going over her notes and making sure that both teams had their supplies.

 

* * *

 

Out on the field the announcer had just announced the Auradon Knights, followed by the cheers of the fans as they all made their way onto the grass. Mal turned to Jay as she asked, “You ready for this?”

“Yeah, why wouldn’t I be?” He answered as he looked for his parents in the crowd, smiling and waving once he found them.

“Not _this_ , stupid,” Mal groaned, “The callback. Once you go through with this, nothing will _ever_ be the same. I just want you to be absolutely sure.”

Jay looked at his friend and sighed, “Thanks Mal, but I’m sure. Honestly.”

Mal relaxed and said, “Good, ‘cause I don’t wanna be going through this shit if you weren’t serious about it. Now let’s crush some Viking ass! WHAT TEAM?”

“KNIGHTS!” Jay yelled.

“WHAT TEAM?” Mal shouted.

“KNIGHTS!” the rest of the team joined in.

“WHAT TEAM?” Mal screamed once more.

“KNIGHTS!” by now, every Auradon supporter had joined in on the familiar cheer.

“OH-AY-OH HEY!” Everyone finished together, marching onto the field in confidence as they waited for the toss-up.

 

* * *

 

“Casting a show is both a challenge and a responsibility. A joy and a burden. I commend you and all other young artists to hold out for the moon, the sun, and the stars! Don’t worry about the past, or you’ll miss the future!” Ms. Fair nodded to all the students that had come out to watch the callbacks.

Jane looked nervously at her watch as she listened to Ms. Fair, not completely confident that Jay and Carlos would make it in time.

“Audrey and Doug!” Ms. Fair called out as she sat down, waiting a minute before the music started.

Doug came out in a sparkly shirt, a pinstripe suit, and a black and white hat on his head as he sang out, “ _¡Mucho gusto!_ ”

Audrey appeared from behind the curtain on stage right, wearing a sparkly blue dress with a skirt that looked like it was made of feathers as she sang, “ _¡Ay, que fabulosa! ¿Quieres bailer?_ ”

 _“¡Mirame!”_ Doug sang.

 _“I believe in dreaming, shooting for the stars,_ ” Audrey sang as she moved downstage.

“ _Baby, to be number one, you’ve got to raise the bar!”_ Doug sang.

“ _Kicking and a scratching, grinding out my best,_ ” Audrey sang as she moved her hips to the music.

“ _Anything it takes to climb the ladder of success,_ ” Doug sang as he mimed out climbing a ladder.

They both sang, “ _Work our tails off every day! Gotta bump the competition, blow them all away!_ ”

“ _Caliente!”_ Doug yelled.

“ _Suave!”_ Audrey replied.

“ _Yeah, we’re gonna bop, bop, bop, bop to the top!_ ” they sang.

“ _Slip and slide and ride that rhythm,_ ” Doug sang.

“ _Jump and hop, hop ‘til we drop,_ ” they sang.

“ _And start again_ ,” Audrey sang.

“ _Zip, zap, zop, flop like a mop,_ ” they sang as they danced.

“ _Scoot around the corner,_ ” Doug moved so he was in front of his sister.

“ _Move it to the groove ‘til the music stops,_ ” they sang as they started to salsa around the stage.

Jane rolled her eyes at the cheesy dance moves, constantly glancing at the doors as she prayed for everyone to carry out their part of the plan.

 

* * *

 

Carlos was terrified, he was currently up in front of a bunch of people trying to solve a complicated problem, and was praying to god that he would get it right. He stood back to check his work quickly before running over to the stopwatch and pressing it. The judge looked over Carlos’ work slowly, looking from one team to the other, before putting his hand out in the direction of the Auradon team and saying, “The Auradon School has it!”

The Auradon side of the classroom erupted into applause, Carlos and Evie hugging each other quickly before doing their part to get Jay out of the game for a little while. Evie opened her laptop as she said, “All right, Knights, halftime is gonna start a little early today.”

She clicked on the button that said, SEND CODE, and closed her laptop as Carlos dropped something into one of the substances at the front of the class. It wasn’t long before the entire classroom stunk, and Evie and Carlos quickly led the group of genius’ out into the hall as they started to sprint towards the auditorium.

“You go!” Evie called out when she saw Carlos slow down to wait for her, “I’ll catch up!”

Carlos nodded as he turned around again, running as fast as his legs could carry him.

 

* * *

 

Jay had been pushing past defender after defender when he heard murmurs start to come from the crowd. He and the rest of his teammates stopped to look at the scoreboard, Jay, Mal, Ben, and Chad smiling when they saw that it had somehow gone haywire.

“We seem to be experiencing some technical difficulties,” the announcer said.

Jay stood staring at the scoreboard, a sense of pride welling up in his chest when he felt a tap on his shoulder; he turned to see Mal pointing at the school wish a frustrated look on her face.

“Move!” she yelled as she pushed him to the school.

Jay quickly took off his helmet and threw it to the ground, faintly hearing the announcer say something about moving into the school while they got it all sorted out, and sprinted to the school in the hopes that he would somehow make it to the auditorium in time.

 

* * *

 

“’ _Til we reach the top! Bop to the top!”_ Audrey and Carlos finished, the few students in attendance clapping out of respect.

Audrey and Doug stood upon the stage and bowed, revelling in the attention and praise that they felt they deserved, Doug stepping back to give his sister a moment to herself.

“Do you see why we love the theatre?” Ms. Fair asked the audience, “Well done! Now who’s next, ah, Jay Williams and Carlos De Vil.”

Jane looked to the theatre entrances in fear, looking back at Ms. Fair when she called their names again.

“They’ll be here!” she said.

“The theater, as I have often pointed out, waits for no one. I’m sorry,” Ms. Fair replied.

Jane opened her mouth a couple times, not knowing what to say, before turning around and storming off stage.

“Well, we are done here, congratulations to all. The cast list will be post-” Ms. Fair announced.

“Ms. Fair! Wait!” Jay pleaded as he raced down the aisle and onto the stage, “We’re ready, we can sing!”

“I called your names, _twice_ ,” Ms. Fair replied.

“Ms. Fair, please! Please!” Carlos begged, hoping that for once this woman would show mercy.

“Rules are rules!” Ms. Fair started, but once again stopped short when she heard the sound of students coming from the entrance. She looked out to see the auditorium being filled with people from the tourney game and the scholastic decathlon, causing her to take a moment as she saw the seats so full.

“We’ll be happy to perform our number for our fellow students, Ms. Fair,” Audrey interjected as she looked out into the crowd, always yearning for an audience.

“I don’t know what’s going on here, but at any rate it’s far too late and we haven’t got a pianist,” she replied.

“Well, that’s showbiz,” Audrey quipped as he sneered at Carlos.

“We’ll sing without a piano!” Jay stated, hearing footsteps coming up behind him.

“Oh, no, you won’t! Pianist here, Ms. Fair,” Jane declared.

“You really don’t wanna do that,” Audrey threatened as she stepped closer to Jane.

Jane squared her shoulders and narrowed her eyes as she replied, “Oh, yes, I really do.”

Audrey squawked as she moved to her brother, shocked that someone would speak to her that way.

Ms. Fair looked from one pair to the other as she said, “Now _that’s_ showbiz.”

Audrey and Doug glared as Ms. Fair went back to her desk, sighing dejectedly as they went to find seats.

Jay turned to Carlos and asked, “You ready?”

Carlos nodded, Jay turning to Jane to signal that she should start playing, but stopped her when he caught a look of fear flash across Carlos’ face.

“What’s wrong?” Jay asked, his brow furrowing.

“She’s here,” Carlos whispered.

Jay looked out to where Carlos was looking and saw a skinny bitch with an oversized coat and black and white hair, scowling at the pair of them. He concluded that this must be Carlos’ mother and cursed as he turned back to the boy.

“Hey,” he whispered, “Don’t worry about her, okay?” he reached down to lace their hands together as he continued, “Just look at me, right at me… like New Year’s.”

Carlos looked into Jay’s eyes and relaxed somewhat, nodding once more when he had felt he was ready. Jay turned back to Jane as the students of Auradon Prep waited in suspense.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm sorry! That cliffhanger sucks I KNOW but the next chapter is the last chapter so it'll make up for it I SWEAR!!!


	11. Breaking Free

Jay looked into Carlos’ eyes, took a deep breath, and started to sing.

“ _We’re soaring, flying, there’s not a star in heaven that we can’t reach_ ,” Jay sang.

“ _If we’re trying, so we’re breaking free_ ,” Carlos sang, though less confidently than Jay had.

“ _You know the world can see us, in a way that’s different than who we are_ ,” Jay sang as he started walking downstage, towards the audience.

“ _Creating space between us_ ,” Carlos sang as he started to move away from Jay, their fingers barely touching as he continued, “ _Til we’re separate hearts…_ ” he dropped Jay’s hand.

They joined together and sang, “ _But your faith, it gives me strength. Strength to believe…_ ”

“ _We’re breaking free!_ ” Jay sings.  
                “ _We’re soaring!_ ” Carlos sings.

 “ _Flying!_ ” Jay finished.

“ _There’s not a star in heaven that we can’t reach_ ,” they sang.

“ _If we’re trying_ ,” Jay sings.

“ _Yeah, we’re breaking free_ ,” they sang together. By now Carlos was smiling along with Jay, getting lost in the song as he moved to take off his lab jacket.

“ _Can you feel it building? Like a wave the ocean just can’t control_ ,” Jay sang, gliding his feet across the stage and pointing to Carlos at the end for him to take over.

“ _Connected by a feeling, Oooh, in our very souls_ ,” Carlos sings.

“ _Rising ‘til it lifts us up_ ,” they sing together, “ _So everyone can see…_ ”

“ _We’re breaking free!”_ Jay sings.  
                “ _Soaring!”_ Carlos sings.

“ _Flying!_ ” Jay sings as he circles around Carlos.

“ _There’s not a star in heaven that we can’t reach_ ,” they sang. By now the crowd was clapping along to the beat.

“ _If we’re trying!”_ Jay smiled as he saw Mal give him a thumbs up from the crowd.

“ _Yeah, we’re breaking free_ ,” they harmonized.

“ _Running!_ ” Carlos sang as he ran across the stage.

“ _Climbing_ ,” Jay sang as he grinned at the boy.

“ _To get to that place to be all that we can be!”_ they sang. Carlos looked out into the crowd to see Evie holding her hand to her heart, her eyes glistening as she tried to keep the tears from streaming down her face.

“ _Now’s the time!”_ Jay sang.

“ _So we’re breaking free,”_ they sang, moving over to Jane. They stood on either side and looked into each other’s eyes as they sang…

“ _More than hope, more than faith_ ,” Jay sang.

“ _This is truth, this is fate!”_ Carlos sang, “ _And together…”_

“ _We see it coming!”_ Jay joined in. He saw someone stand up out of the corner of his eye, and soon everyone in the auditorium was on their feet as well.

“ _More than you, more than me_ ,” Jay sang.

“ _Not a want, but a need!”_ Carlos sang.

“ _Both of us breaking free!”_ they sang as they saw an enormous moon lower down from the rafters.

“ _Soaring!”_ Carlos sang, killing the high note and bringing them into the key change.

“ _Flying,_ ” Jay sang, his heart skipping a beat like it had on New Year’s in awe of Carlos’ talent.

“ _There’s not a star in heaven that we can’t reach!”_ they sang, “ _If we’re trying, yeah, we’re breaking free.”_

“ _We’re running!”_ Carlos sang as he moved upstage in a curve.

“ _Climbing!_ ” Jay sang, mirroring his actions.

“ _To get to that place to be all that we can be_ ,” they sang as they met each other behind the moon, turning around once before heading back to finish their circle around the prop.

“ _Now’s the time_ ,” they sang out to the crowd, “ _So we’re breaking free_.”

Carlos moved so he was standing beside Jay, retaking his hand in his as they sang, “ _You know the world can see us, in a way that’s different than who we… are.”_

Carlos and Jay stared at each other, too lost in the moment to pay attention to anyone else, when their thoughts were broken by the thunderous applause. They both took slight bows, only somewhat embarrassed, than pointed to Jane so that she could have her moment in the spotlight.

Jay leaned down and gave Carlos a quick peck on the cheek, whispering, “You were amazing.”

Carlos beamed up at him, throwing his arms around Jay in a tight hug. Jay took a step back, thrown off by the force of Carlos, but quickly wrapped his arms around the younger boys’ waist and picked him up, spinning him around as the crowd continued to scream.

After a few minutes most of the students had decided to go home or back to the tourney field, assuming that now that the callbacks were over everything should be working fine. Audrey and Doug actually left quietly for once, knowing by Jay and Carlos’ performance that they had been beaten fair and square. Carlos was about to head out to the field himself when he heard a voice call out to him.

“Carlos! Here. _Now_.”

Carlos turned to see his mother striding up to the stage, somehow angrier than he had ever seen her. He took a couple of steps back before finding himself surrounded by his friends. Chad and Ben were standing behind him, Mal and Evie were at his sides, and Jay was standing directly in front of him with his arms crossed across his chest.

“He’s not going anywhere near you,” Jay stated, refusing to flinch from Cruella’s harsh stare.

“And who the _fuck_ are you?” she asked.

“I’m his _fucking_ boyfriend,” Jay hissed, “And you will _never_ come near him again, do I make myself clear?”

Carlos placed a hand on Jay’s shoulder, silently thanking him for standing up for him.

“Who do you think you are?” Cruella snapped as she tried to get past them, “I’m his _mother!_ He loves me, and _I_ _love_ _him_.” Cruella’s tone changed to warm and sympathetic at the end, making Carlos’ heart constrict at the words he’d always wanted to hear. A couple of tears slipped down his cheeks and he felt his hands being gripped by hands that, for the first time, were not Jay’s. He looked to his right to see Mal, her shoulders squared and her jaw set as she held onto Carlos’ right hand. He looked to his left and saw Evie, a fearful look in her eye as she tried to reassure Carlos by giving his hand a quick squeeze. He could even feel someone behind him, and was more than shocked when he realized that Jane was defending him with a look in her eye that could rival a glare from Mal.

“No you don’t,” Carlos muttered, as he turned back around to face his mother, “You don’t love me… YOU _NEVER_ LOVED ME!” Carlos screamed at his mother, years of pent up rage bubbling up to the surface. “If you loved me, you wouldn't hit me! You wouldn't lock me in your closet for hours, _laughing_ when you hear me crying through the door! You would've given me three meals a day instead of using meals as rewards for good behaviour!” By now tears were streaming down Carlos’ face steadily, but his voice never wavered as he said, “If you loved me, you would've treated me like a son. Not your own personal _pet_.”

Cruella snarled as she hissed, “That’s your word against mine, and until you are physically removed from my possession you will do as I say! Now come here, now!”

“No, Carlos, stay where you are,” everyone turned to see Ms. Fair striding straight up to Cruella with a pitying look on her face.

“And _who_ are _you_?” Cruella asked.

“I am someone who cares for your son very much,” Ms. Fair replied as she glanced over at Carlos, “Even though I haven’t known him for very long.”

“Yes, well, I would like to take my son and go now please,” Cruella asked, trying to give the appearance of being calm so that this new woman would let her leave.

“I know you would, sadly that’s not the reality we live in… Officers!” Ms. Fair shouted.

Two policemen stepped out from behind the curtain, shocking almost everyone there by their sudden appearance.

“I called them while you guys were performing,” Evie said, looking from person to person, “After seeing her at the scholastic decathlon I feared that something like this would happen. I told them to wait backstage so that they could listen in, I was right in thinking that Cruella would let her guard down if no one _important_ was listening.”

“You’re coming with us ma’am,” one of the officers said, moving her wrists behind her back to put her in handcuffs.

“No! No, you can’t _do_ this! Carlos! Carlos, mummy’s sorry! I’m sorry! Please, _don’t let them take me!”_ Cruella’s screams echoed off the walls as she was dragged out of the auditorium, the doors shut and they could still hear her, although by then it was muffled. Everyone stayed quiet as they heard her screams grow quieter and quieter, until all they heard was silence.

“Bye mom,” Carlos said, tears still streaming down his face. He knew his mother was horrible, but, she was still his mom. Carlos buried himself in Jay’s shoulder as Jay wrapped his arms around Carlos, placing a kiss to his temple as he started whispering, “ _Shh, it’s okay… you’re okay now…_ ” into his ear.

“What am I going to do now?” Carlos asked, moving away from Jay to speak to everyone, “I don’t have a guardian… and I’m not old enough to live on my own! I’m gonna be put up for adoption and never see any of you again!”

“Actually,” Evie interjected, “I may be able to offer a solution.”

Carlos furrowed his brow as he saw Evie’s parents come up behind her, trying and failing to understand what was going on.

“What are you talking about?” Carlos asked.

“Truly,” Evie’s mother answered, “It is us that can offer a solution. Carlos, if you would let us, we would love to welcome you into our home.”

Carlos’ eyes widened, not believing what he was hearing, but snapped out of his shock when Jay put a hand on his shoulder. Carlos looked at Jay, scared that whatever decision he would make would be the wrong one, and was relieved when Jay nodded and smiled. Carlos turned back to Evie’s mother and said, “I’d be honoured.”

He jumped as Evie squealed and threw her arms around him, making it hard for him to breathe, as she whispered, “I’ve always wanted a little brother.”

Carlos smiled and wrapped his arms around Evie’s waist, “And I’ve always wanted a family.”

“Now you have one,” Jay said.

“With us,” Mal finished.

They all fell silent as they looked at one another, wondering how the hell a couple of weeks could have created such a strong bond between them, when Carlos jumped and yelled, “Guys! The game! You have to go!”

Jay, Mal, Ben, and Chad all cursed and ran for the door, Jay stopping shortly to give Carlos a peck on the cheek before he left. Carlos watched them run from the hall and was surprised to see Mal dragging Ben along by his hand. _Well that’s an interesting development_ , he thought.

“Let’s go watch them kick some ass!” Evie exclaimed, taking Carlos’ hand in hers as she led her parents, Ms. Fair, and Jane out of the auditorium.

 

* * *

 

“Ben maneuvers past a defenseman, passes to Mal, who passes to Jay and- GOAL! With only seconds to spare! The Auradon Knights win! AURADON KNIGHTS WIN!” Carlos cheered along with the rest of the school as the buzzer rang to signal the end of the game, plugging his ears with his fingers when Evie’s scream threatened to shatter his eardrums.

Jay ran over towards Mal and the rest of the team, grinning from ear to ear. He thought he heard Mal shout something, but couldn’t tell what it was over all the noise. He was about to go over to her to find out what she said when he suddenly felt himself getting lifted up into the air. He laughed as he shouted, “WHAT TEAM?”

“KNIGHTS!” came the reliable reply.

“WHAT TEAM?” Jay yelled again.

“KNIGHTS!” everyone answered.

“WHAT TEAM?” Jay shouted for a final time.

“KNIGHTS!” they all yelled.

“OH-AY-OH HEY!”

From his vantage point Jay could see Carlos making his way towards him, though somewhat difficultly, through the crowd. Jay shouted for his teammates to put him down, giving thanks and smiles as he made his way towards Carlos. Jay was turned around as someone enveloped in a hug, saying thanks as he went on his way, and was delighted to feel a pair of arms snake around his waist.

“Congratulations, Jay!” Carlos yelled.

“What about your team?” Jay asked, turning around to face him.

“We won too!” Carlos answered.

Jay smiled and pulled Carlos close, dipping his head and closing his eyes when-

“Yo! Team voted you the game ball, Captain!” Mal interrupted, tossing the ball in Jay’s direction.

“Yeah, thank you, thanks a lot,” Jay said as he caught the ball, leaned back down, and captured Carlos’ mouth with his.

“Well, congratulations,” they heard a voice from behind them, Audrey’s to be specific, making them jump apart, “I guess I’m going to be the understudy in case you can’t make one of the shows, so… break a leg.” Carlos’ eyes widened at Audrey’s sentence, but relaxed when she grinned and said, “In theatre that means _good luck!”_

Audrey started heading towards the parking lot when Chad stepped in front of her and said, “Hey, Audrey! I’m sorry you didn’t get the lead, but I think you’re really good.”

“And, why wouldn’t you?” Audrey said as she looked at Doug with an exasperated expression, “Now, buh-bye.”

“Wait!” Chad exclaimed, “I baked you some cookies!”

“Ew,” Audrey replied as she hurried away, Doug stepping around her as he took the cookies from Chad’s hands.

“Nice game,” Doug said, shaking his hand.

“Thanks,” Chad replied, running off to join in with some of the other celebrations.

Carlos and Jay, who had been watching the exchange, both gasped at what they saw when everyone moved apart. Mal and Ben were standing in the middle of the field with their arms wrapped around each other, passionately making out like they were the only two people there.

“That looks like fun,” Carlos mumbled, just loud enough for Jay to hear.

“Oh really?” Jay laughed, moving in closer.

“Yes, really,” Carlos replied as he brought his arms up around Jay’s neck.

Jay dipped his head once more and touched his lips to Carlos’, this time sucking on Carlos’ bottom lip and tilting his head to deepen the kiss. Carlos gasped when he felt Jay bite down on his lip, allowing the older boy to slip his tongue into his mouth. Their tongues fell into an easy rhythm, as if they had been meant to fit together like puzzle pieces.

After a few minutes Carlos pulled away, needing to catch his breath. Jay caught a glimpse of someone out of the corner of his eye and said, “I’ll be right back.”

Jane had been standing by herself, so when someone came up behind her she jumped before realizing who it was.

“Composer, here’s your game ball,” Jay said as he handed it over to her, “You deserve it, playmaker.” Jane blushed and pulled Jay into a quick hug, letting go before he had a chance to respond.

“Thanks Jay,” she said, wiping a tear from her eye as she went to go join in on the festivities.

“That was a nice thing you just did,” Jay heard Carlos say.

“Yeah, well, my boyfriend is _super_ annoying with that stuff… he’s so adorably sweet that it’s starting to rub off on me,” Jay teased with a laugh.

“Really? Well that’s funny, ‘cause I have a boyfriend who likes to think he’s hot shit but is actually just a mega softy inside,” Carlos teased back.

“Is that so?” Jay grinned, raising his eyebrows.

“Yes that’s so,” Carlos replied as he grabbed the back of Jay’s neck and pulled him down for a kiss, not even giving him a chance to respond. This kiss was less heated, and they could both feel the other smiling against them, but that just made it even more perfect.

Carlos pulled away and took Jay’s hand in his, walking towards the now empty bleachers. He led Jay up to the top, marveling at how it seemed like the entire school had gathered for this one game.

“It’s amazing,” he whispered, looking out at the crowd.

“Yeah,” Jay agreed, never taking his eyes off of Carlos, “You are.”

Carlos blushed as Jay wrapped his arms around him, front to back so that they were both facing the field. Carlos sighed and leaned back into Jay, smiling when he felt Jay kiss his temple. He opened his eyes to see everyone he’d gotten to know over the past couple of weeks, tears coming to his eyes at the realization that he now had friends- no, a family.

Mal and Ben were no longer lip locked, but were pressed up against each other like there was a magnet between them. Evie was talking to Doug, surprisingly, and he looked like he had just met a literal angel from heaven above, though Evie seemed to be slightly pinker than the normal amount of blush she applied every day. Audrey was running away from Chad, who was still trying to get her to taste one of his cookies, but was smiling whenever she turned her back to him and thought that no one was looking. Coach Jenkins and Ms. Fair were talking together, seeming to be on much better terms than before, now that everything had worked out. Jane was off to the side with some girl named… Lonnie? He wasn’t really sure because he’d only heard her name in passing, but they were smiling and talking to one another like they were best friends. Jay had moved his head to rest beside Carlos’ and was quietly humming the song that he had sang to him on the roof just a few days ago, his eyes closed in bliss as he stood with his boyfriend in his arms.

Carlos closed his eyes too, confident that no matter what would happen next, they would all be in it together.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So... that's the end! I'm going to add another chapter sometime soon to answer some questions I got throughout the story and to thank every one of you for sticking around for so long!!!
> 
> (And yes, I know that that's probably not how cops would respond to a 911 call, but that was really the most realistic scenario that I could think of giving where I wanted the story to go.)
> 
> But, sadly, that's the end! I'm hoping that it's everything you hoped for. :)


	12. A Letter to the Readers

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is not a chapter, but I wanted to sincerely thank each and every one of you for sticking with this story.

Hello to all of you wonderful people!!!

I can't believe that this story is over… but I am so glad to have been a art of an amazing journey! Even though I never really saw any of your reactions, all of your comments and questions kept me encouraged and determined enough to see this through to the end. Now, to answer a few questions that I have been getting for a while… (or rather, one specific question with a very complicated answer)

**Will I be writing a sequel?**

The short answer? Yes… _eventually._

This story has surprisingly drained me, and I found myself staying up until the wee hours of the night to finish some (okay, most of) the chapters because I was so desperate to finish this story (my fault, not yours… when I start something I NEED to finish it). So although I am saying that I will write a sequel, I don't think it'll be for a while.

**So, when should we expect a sequel?**

I can't give you an exact date, but I'll give you an idea and say that you shouldn't expect a sequel for another month.

I've been getting more and more busy as the year goes on, and I know I'm going to have hardly any time or energy to write a sequel, so I am going to give myself a break before tackling the second movie head-on in the hopes of writing a sequel fic that's just as good.

**Will you write any more fanfiction in the next month?**

Yes, but probably just short one shots that I can type off in a couple hours. I'm not going to be starting any major fics like this one because of how much work they take.

**How can we contact you if we want to get an update on the fic release date?**

Well, you can always comment on the fic because I check my inbox pretty frequently and would probably get back to you in a day or less.

OR you could go and message me on my tumblr account here: http://reyisbaebae8.tumblr.com

(or just message me to say hi!)

If there are any other questions please comment or message me and I will edit this chapter until everything that you guys are asking about is answered!

Thank you again so, so much for reading my story. I wasn't sure if my writing was that great so having so many people practically beg me to write a sequel is humbling, and has given me more confidence in my abilities.

Until I post again, I hope you have a wonderful morning, afternoon, evening, or night! (Whatever the hell you're experiencing when you read this)

UPDATE: I probably won't be writing a sequel until the summer of 2016, I am upgrading classes for college and will have even less time than before... But a sequel is still in the works! Sorry for the even longer wait!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And yes, I kinda took that from The Truman Show :)

**Author's Note:**

> Let me know what you guys think! It's always nice to know that your readers enjoy your work, so leaving comments or kudos is super appreciated!


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